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TEACHING AND ORGANISATION.

With Special Reference to Secondary Schools.

A MANUAL OF PRACTICE.

Edited by P. A. BARNETT, M.A.

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON;
NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY.

WORK AND PLAY IN GIRLS’ SCHOOLS

WORK AND PLAY
IN
GIRLS’ SCHOOLS

BY
THREE HEAD MISTRESSES

DOROTHEA BEALE
LUCY H. M. SOULSBY
JANE FRANCES DOVE

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1898

PREFACE.

The book is divided into three Sections, and each of the writers is responsible only for her own part, and yet I hope it will not be merely a composite book; all the contributors are members of the teaching staff of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, or have at some time formed part of it, and now, as then, there is I believe a unity of purpose, which will give harmony to the work.

The book is intended to be a practical one, helpful chiefly to teachers in our large Secondary Schools; the limits imposed compel us (1) to deal more with methods than the underlying principles; (2) to isolate more or less the influences of the school from those of the manifold environment, which are at the same time forming the body, mind and character of the child, and which seem to make the school-life of relatively small moment; (3) we have to treat only of a few years of life; for, like the bird of the fable, the soul of the child comes to us often from some unknown region, stays for a while in our banqueting hall, and then passes again into the darkness.

Yet I suppose the experience of most of us bears witness to the great importance of the school-life as one of the factors in the “development of a soul”. “The atmosphere, the discipline, the life” of the school is so potent, that the word education has been often limited to the school period, and the pupils of an Aristotle, an Ascham, an Arnold, speak of their teachers as having given them a new life. Our work is not insignificant, and our earnest study must be by instruction and discipline, by what Plato calls music and gymnastic, to promote the harmonious development of the character; to bring our children into sympathetic relations with the noble and the good of all ages; to lead them into the possession of that good land, “flowing with milk and honey,” the spiritual inheritance of humanity.

I would fain hope, that one day all teachers will endeavour to spend at least some time, before entering on professional work, in studying the art, the science, the philosophy of education. In this little book we have had to restrict ourselves almost to the first, but we have referred to works which deal with the higher aspects of the subject. I would earnestly press on all my readers, that their own education must never be regarded as finished; if we cease to learn, we lose the power of sympathy with our pupils, and a teacher without intellectual and moral sympathy has no dynamic, no inspiring force. Especially should all teachers be students of psychology, of that marvellous instrument, from which it is ours to draw forth heavenly harmonies. To many a teacher might the words of Hamlet be addressed by her pupils:—

How unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ; yet cannot you make it speak. Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Though you can fret me, yet cannot you play upon me.

Dorothea Beale.

CONTENTS.

SECTION I.

INTRODUCTION.

By Dorothea Beale.

Subject.I have been asked to undertake one section of a book on the education of girls, and to confine myself, as far as possible, to the intellectual aspects of education, leaving to others the task of dealing with the physical and moral aspects. I shall try to keep within the assigned limits—abstain from any systematic treatment of the laws of hygiene, and write no formal treatise on school ethics—but all the intellectual work must of course be conditioned by the necessities of the physical life, and the final cause of all education must be the development of a right character.

Education of girls in secondary schools.I am to treat the subject too with special reference to the large secondary schools which have come into existence during the last fifty years, and in doing so, I must dwell briefly upon the changes which have taken place in the ideals and theories regarding the education of girls, which have found expression in these schools, and in the Women’s Colleges. I shall speak of what has yet to be accomplished, for we are still in a period of transition, and I shall consider by what means we may best realise our ideals.

Aim of educationNow in education there is always a twofold object. Bacon tells us the furthest end of knowledge is “the glory of the Creator and the relief of man’s estate”—in other words, the perfection of the individual, and the good of the community. In some periods, indeed in pre-Christian times generally, the latter was emphasised,[1] men were to live for the commonwealth; the individual was regarded as an instrument for accomplishing certain work—he was not thought of as an end in himself. Thus even the most enlightened among ancient writers have spoken of slaves, as if they were mere chattels. Our moral sense is shocked by much that we read in Plato and Aristotle, and still more by what the laws of Rome permitted. Christianity on the other hand taught that the primary relationship of each was to the All-Father, the primary duty of each to realise God’s ideal for His children, to become perfect, and by glorifying human nature to glorify God. This was the first commandment, but the second was implied in the first—self-love was not selfish, the love of God descending from heaven became the enthusiasm of humanity.

[1] Even Milton writes: “I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously all the offices to the public and private, of peace and war”.

as regards the individual,“Education,” writes Mr. Ruskin (Queen’s Gardens), “is the leading human souls to what is best and making what is best out of them; and these two objects are always attainable together, and by the same means; the training which makes men happiest in themselves, also makes them most serviceable to others.” “The only safe course,” writes Miss Shirreff (Intellectual Education), “is to hold up individual perfectness as the aim of education.”

as regards the commonwealth.And so the task of the educator is in the first instance to develop to the highest perfection all the powers of the child, that he may realise the ideal of the All-Father. But the perfection of man “the thinker,” the anthropos, “the upward looker,” can be attained only when as a son he enters into, and co-operates with the Divine purpose in thought and act: therefore to know God and His laws for His children’s education and development, is the beginning and the end. These laws man reads (1) in the world of Nature with which science has to do; (2) in human history and institutions; (3) in the hidden life of the soul—of which philosophy and religion and ethics treat. He has to seek first to know truth, to bring his will into conformity with the Divine thought, and then to utter what is true and right in word and deed; only thus will the kingdom of righteousness be set up, and the perfection of the whole—the well-being of the commonwealth—of “man writ large” be secured. The most civilised nations are devoting their best energies to the work of education, realising that upon this depends their very existence—that it is not by starving the individual life, and merging it in the general, but by developing each to perfection, that the common good will be secured. They trust less to the power of laws and institutions, more to the power of a right education—less to external restraint, more to the wisdom that comes of a wisely directed experience.

Reforms since 1848.These principles have guided the new movement for women’s education, and those who have followed the changes in public opinion, since people have thought more of each individual as an end in himself, are full of confidence and hope. The reformers said: “Let us give to girls an invigorating dietary, physical, intellectual, moral; seclusion from evil is impossible, but we can strengthen the patient to resist it”.

’Tis life, not death for which we pant,

More life and fuller, that we want!

Such were, I believe, the feelings and the thoughts of those who initiated just fifty years ago the great movement, which found its first visible expression in the foundation of Queen’s College by Maurice and Kingsley and Trench and others like-minded and less known. This was soon followed by the opening of Bedford College, 1849, and the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, 1853. Miss Buss and her brothers, in association with Mr. Laing, established the first great High School, and Mrs. Grey and Miss Shirreff carried on the movement in that direction; from the Union founded by them grew up the G.P.D.S. Co., while Miss Davies with far-seeing wisdom won over Cambridge professors (amongst whom I may specially mention Professor Henry Sidgwick and James Stuart) to offer the highest culture to women.

The leaders had to ask and answer many questions. What direction, what shape should the new movement for higher education take? Should there be two sorts of education for girls and boys? The Schools’ Inquiry Commission had shown that a specially feminine education had not produced very successful results, and the leaders said: Let us give to girls the solid teaching in languages and mathematics and science, which are found to strengthen the powers of boys, and prepare them to do good work of many kinds. If it was objected that women were to rule in the home, and men in the larger world, they argued, that for girls as for boys, the right course was to give a liberal education. The boy does not learn in the school the things which will be required in his future business or profession, but he brings to these the cultivated mind, the power of work, the disciplined will.

And the world is more and more recognising that the leaders were right, and schools have arisen in all our great towns. Fifty years ago there were dismal prophecies—an outcry that study would ruin health. Results physical and moral.Now it is a common remark that there is a general improvement in physique. Women too are more conscious of their responsibilities in the life of the family, as well as in that of the country, especially in social and church life. They feel, that though they may have but the “smallest scruple” of excellence, they must render for it “thanks and use”. Besides, another good has been more and more realised; as Mrs. Jameson, in her beautiful lecture,[2] set forth, girls taught on the same lines, and women who can enter into the subjects of study and thought which occupy the minds of their fathers, husbands, sons, have more understanding, more sympathy, more power to make the home what it should be; the only healthy intellectual companionship is communion between active minds, and the highest purposes of marriage are unfulfilled, if either husband or wife lives in a region of thought which the other cannot enter. Besides, those many women who remain unmarried can, if well educated, find in some form of service the satisfaction of their higher nature. Surely women trained in good schools and colleges have as wives and mothers shared the labours and entered more fully as companions into the lives of husbands and children. The names of many will occur to my readers, but one cares not to name the living. We see every year at the Conference of Women Workers, that the seed sown in faith has brought forth fruit; that the whole aspect of the woman’s realm has changed since the days of Evelina and Miss Austen.

[2] “Communion of Labour.”

But none of us may rest in that which has been attained. We ask for the “wages of going on and not to die”. There is earnest endeavour on the part of all engaged in the work of education, which has found expression in such societies as the Parents’ Educational Union, the Child Study Society, and the Teachers’ Guild. Teachers are not content with the school year, but holiday courses are the order of the day, and many are seeking training, and others ask for a year or a term to improve, and books on education are pouring from the press, and some of us, who have gained experience which may be helpful to others, feel bound, though much hindered by the calls of active life, to share those experiences, and say what we can about the ideals, the principles, the methods, which, we trust, have already, in spite of the gloomy portents of years gone by, improved the physical, the intellectual and moral vigour of those who have shared the larger life, entered into the higher intellectual interests, and undergone the strengthening discipline of our large schools.

CurriculumWith these preliminary remarks, I enter upon the subject of the curriculum; I have drawn up a table which I shall proceed to discuss. I have classed the subjects of education under five heads, and divided the pupils in a general way also into five classes. But before I deal with the practical, let me speak of the ideal. There is nothing so practical as ideas—these are the moving power of all our acts.

If what I have said is true, the subject cannot be treated in reference to girls only; not because I would assimilate the teaching of girls to that of boys, but because the teaching of both should aim at developing to the highest excellence the intellectual powers common to both. The teaching of modern science tells us that both pass through the same lower stages, that they may rise into the higher, and all history tells us that men and women

Rise or sink

Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free.

So we ask generally what is the Education of Man? Fröbel has rightly emphasised the last word. It is the development of that which distinguishes man from all the lower forms of life “summed up” in him, that can alone be properly called the Education of Man: other creatures can live, as he does, the nutritive or vegetable life, which goes on of itself—other animals live the conscious life, they see and know, but to man alone it is possible to objectify all things by transcending them, and even that lower self, which is part of his dual nature; he is able to know himself both as “I” and “me”; he brings to sensation the formative power of his own thought, makes, as Kant has said, the universe which he did not create. And so man does not merely perceive, but apperceive, takes into his own being ideas, thoughts; combines, associates these,—and indeed it is difficult to speak of these ideas otherwise than Herbart does, as entities, by which the mind grows, fashioning them to its own uses, as the body does, the food on which it lives. Because he can objectify thus, language is possible. Man gives to thoughts, these “airy nothings, a local habitation and a name”; he is able to plan, to project and therefore to form judgments.

But if he is related to that world to which the senses reach, he is also in relation, through an inward feeling which we call sympathy, with other “subjects,” able to recognise in others that which he knows in himself as mind; if he finds himself so related to the world of sense, that he responds to its touch, much more nearly is he in relation with other personalities; these he knows, before he recognises objective nature; through other minds his own is educated, and so the humanities take the first place; he enters into relations through the communis sensus with a world of thinking beings. These persons communicate thoughts, specially through (a) language immediate, and through written language. By written speech the limitations of space and time are abolished, and we are able to speak not only of men, but of man, for not only is his physical life continuous, but his mental and moral life through the ages is one. So from language we pass to (b) history and literature and historic act, the record of what men have done and suffered and thought and recorded, not in books only but in all material things; for man the dead live; and as the actors pass from the stage, history, no less than philosophy and science, tends upwards to those higher regions of thought, where we ponder on the (c) mysteries of man’s self-conscious life, on his relation to other minds, and to the One whose offspring we are, and in Whom all things live and move and have their being.

The subjects of study then may also be classified under five headings:—

I. The Humanities: which have to do with man, known objectively through word and deed, in language and literature, in history and art; subjectively, as in ethics, religion, philosophy.

II. Mathematics: embracing three divisions relating to space, number, energy in the abstract—these have to do with necessary truth.

III. Science: which rests not on a basis of thought only, but on facts given through sense objectively.

IV. Æsthetics: which may be classed under the three heads, as music, painting and the other arts—considered subjectively.

V. The exercises suitable for the physical development.

It is with the first section that every teacher has to do; though he may be a specialist for science or mathematics or music, he has always to do with man in his manifold relations, he has ever to do with the humanities. It must be the constant study of the teacher to find the best means of developing the powers of thought, of calling forth right motives of action, developing right habits, and so forming noble characters, which is the final cause of all his labours. Ever throughout life he will by study and experience deepen and extend his knowledge, but it is earnestly to be desired that he should have some leisure for definite preparation by the study of education as an art, a science, a philosophy, before entering on his responsible work. In this, as in everything else, only those who have gained the knowledge are really judges of its value. The man who knows no foreign tongue, supposes he understands English, but we know in how poor and faulty a way. A study of the mysteries of our own being, of the fundamental basis of philosophy and psychology, personal knowledge of and sympathy with the great thinkers and philosophers and martyrs of education, must move us to more purposeful and thoughtful and devoted lives, and give us a joy that we cannot feel when we are working blindly and mechanically, without the faith which works by love.

HOURS OF STUDY INCLUDING PREPARATION PER WEEK.

I have mentioned at the close of the introduction [some books] not too large or difficult which will be helpful to those who desire to begin the serious study of the subjects included under the general heading of pedagogy.

In the table ([p. 10]) I have arranged courses of study and grouped pupils according to age, but only for those called B and C have I attempted to give the time each week, which might be allowed on an average for serious study. I think the Bs generally and the Cs almost always should follow a fixed course, though some variation should be permitted to the Cs. The Ds and Es should take special directions, dropping some subjects and giving much time to others. Under the head of B, I have given what is perhaps the nearest approach to the normal type in my own school. Those who do not learn music, can of course take an extra language, or otherwise cultivate a special subject; those who are but slightly pervious to mathematical ideas are allowed to drop Euclid, after having done enough to profit by the wholesome discipline of writing out propositions say up to Euclid I. 26. These may perhaps add another musical instrument or some manual work.

The principle I would insist on is that our curriculum should, to use a sensible figure, be pyramidal, having a broad base and narrowing; the total cubic content might be the same each year, but in proportion as the subjects taken were fewer, there would be greater depth. Thus the Cs would specialise to a slight extent, the Ds should do so still more, and the Es have found out their vocation, so that for these last no time-table can be given.

In drawing up a time-table I have given only the general lines, and assigned an average time for each section; the case of every individual must be separately considered, and there should always remain some hours of leisure—in the highest classes I have arranged for school work about eight hours out of the twenty-four. If we give four hours to meals and outdoor exercise, and eight to sleep, we have a margin of four hours—a considerable amount of time, if multiplied by six; part of this may be given to general reading, part to social and family life, but for the growing and developing mind there must be time for solitude, for entering into the secret chamber, and listening for the voice heard only in the stillness. We read much in praise of “Eyes” and much in dis-praise of “No-eyes,” but there are times when great thinkers are blind to outward things, and deaf to earthly voices; it is at such times there rise before the mind’s eye ideals which fashion the whole life. I am sure that in these days the young lose much for want of more quiet on Sundays. There may have been over strictness in the past—there is now a surprising ignorance of the Bible and the grounds of faith. Silence.The silence rules of a good school tend to produce a spirit of repose, and a library where no speaking is allowed is a help. Rules which hinder idle talk in the bedrooms are a great boon to those who find the value of quiet at the beginning and end of the day, and I earnestly hope that the excitement of the playground may never supersede the country rambles which have been fruitful of spiritual health to many of us.

In considering how I shall best make this small volume of use to teachers in high schools, I propose to adopt the following plan. [First] to treat of a few general matters which belong to organisation and the methods of management—e.g., distribution and economy of time, corrections, marks, etc.

Then to deal with the subjects of the curriculum in order, in a series of papers by myself and my colleagues.

In [Part I.] I have written first of language generally, embracing reading, speaking, grammar, composition, foreign tongues. It will be clear to all that I could not possibly, in the few pages assigned to each subject, treat the matter exhaustively, but I hope I may strike out some lines of thought which will be helpful, and the lists of books may assist teachers in their studies. In most subjects I have been able to get a few papers from members of my staff, past and present. Under the head of Language I have one from Mr. Rouse, a most able teacher, who had many years’ experience with our elder pupils, specially those reading for classical honours in the University of London.

In [History] and [Literature] I have papers by Miss A. Andrews, Miss Hanbidge and Miss Lumby, the very successful teachers who take these subjects in the London and Higher Cambridge class; there is also a paper on [Economics] by Miss Bridges.

In [Part III.] I have papers by four specially able and experienced teachers—Miss de Brereton Evans, D.Sc. Lond., Miss Reid, B.Sc. Lond., Miss Leonard, B.Sc. Lond., and Miss Laurie.

In [Part IV.] I have a number of short papers by members of our teaching staff.

[Section II.] has been assigned by the publishers to another hand, and for that I am not responsible. Upon the basis of this classification, I have drawn up a [table] showing how the methods of teaching these subjects will vary with the age of the pupil, and what is, I consider, the best order of subjects. I have also added some chapters on various subjects—as Spelling Reform and the Relation of School to Home.

Time available.Before proceeding further it will be best to consider what is the amount of time at our disposal for school teaching. The division of the year into three terms of about twelve weeks, consisting of five or six days each, is so generally adopted that we may take that for granted. The years of school life are at the utmost about ten—in the case of most girls far less.

For day schools in large towns, attended by pupils from considerable distances, two attendances are impossible, and the morning has to last from about 9 or 9·30 to 1 or 1·30. Of the four hours about three and a half are available for lessons, the remaining half-hour being taken up with the general assembly for prayers and a brief interval for recreation; but these twenty-one or twenty-four hours are not spent, as parents are apt to imagine, in poring over books, but are varied by lessons in gymnastics, drawing, singing. Some pupils in large towns remain to dine at the school, and have afternoon teaching in accomplishments. In small towns they return. Thirty hours a week should, I think, be the limit of time given to study for girls of school age. Students fully grown may study six hours a day. Eight should, I think, not be exceeded by any.

Length of lesson.In arranging the time-table, several things have to be considered. (1) A, the youngest children, would have no lessons of more than half an hour, and not more than two hours of definite instruction, the remainder being occupied with games, drill, singing and various hand occupations. Those under eight would have a larger proportion of these last, and perhaps attend for a shorter time. The elder children can have a reading lesson before the general assembly, and the little ones might leave half an hour before the morning closes. If they wait for elder sisters, amusements may be devised. (2) In the case of all, an endeavour should be made to place those studies which make the heaviest demands on the attention as far as possible in the early morning hours. (3) The lessons for Sections B and C would average about fifty minutes, some being thirty minutes, others an hour, the drawing lesson being perhaps longer, whilst religious instruction following upon prayers would occupy half an hour, as would drill and singing. (4) Care should be taken to vary the subjects, so that if possible two lecture lessons should not follow one another, nor two on language, nor two mathematical lessons.

Order of study.We have next to consider the order of study, what subjects are best adapted to the state of development of the child, or in what different ways the same subject may be treated to make it suitable at different ages. In this matter fatal mistakes are still made.[3] Happily the teachings of educational reformers have brought before us the evils of the neglect of psychological principles. Dietary.We are shocked when we hear of mothers ignorant of physiology, feeding infants on bread and tea, and giving soothing syrups; we recognise the danger of too many sweets, and of cigars for growing boys—these have their parallels in the mental dietary. But it is not so much giving wrong things as the deprivation of right things at the right time that is fatal. It is wonderful how much unwholesome food can be disposed of by a vigorous child—there is a fit of sickness and it is gone; but we see in the adult bodily framework, the stunted skeleton, the decaying teeth, etc., the effect of starvation during years of growth. To deprive the child of the mental food and exercise necessary for his development at each period of his growth is a fatal error, the consequences of which are irreparable. This has been forcibly put by Dr. Harris, Chief Commissioner of Education, U.S.A. Speaking of the prolongation for man of the period of infancy required for his development, that he may be adapted to the spiritual environment of the social community into which he is born, he writes: “Is it not evident that if the child is at any epoch inured into any habit or fixed form of activity belonging to a lower stage of development, the tendency will be to arrest growth at that point, and make it difficult or next to impossible to continue the growth of the child into higher and more civilised forms of soul-activity? A severe drill in mechanical habits of memorising, any overcultivation of sense-perception in tender years, may arrest the development of the soul, form a mechanical method of thinking, and prevent the further growth into spiritual insight—especially on the second plane of thought, that which follows sense-perception, namely, the stage of classifying or even the search for causal relations, there is most danger of this arrested development. The absorption of the gaze upon the adjustments within the machine, prevents us from seeing it as a whole. The attention to details of colouring or drawing may prevent one from seeing the significance of the great works of art.... To keep the intellect out of the abyss of habit, and to make the ethical behaviour more and more a matter of unquestioning habit, seems to be the desideratum.”

[3] “The logical order of a good course of instruction,” writes Compayré (Psychology Applied to Education), “must correspond to the chronological order of development of the mental powers.” “If,” writes Herbert Spencer, “the higher faculties are taxed by presenting an order of knowledge more complex and abstract than can be readily assimilated, the abnormal result so produced will be accompanied by equivalent evil.”

Tradition furnishes those who have made no formal study of the subject of mental growth with some empirical rules for a healthy dietary,—as Mr. Barnett has shown,[4] or our children would fare badly; but the evils of misplacing subjects in the order of study, of neglecting to teach the right subjects at the right time, and of partial starvation, are too apparent. Let me conclude with an illustrative anecdote—an object lesson. At school I always kept caterpillars; they were regularly fed, and seldom failed to come out in perfect condition. Once some “woolly bears” escaped; they were found after a few days, and again provided with ample food; but it was too late, they came out with only rudimentary wings.

[4] Teaching and Organisation, p. 5.

But not only have we to provide the right subjects at the right time, we have to consider how the manner of teaching the same subject may be adapted to the age of the pupil. In an excellent Report on the Schools of St. Louis some years ago, Dr. Harris expounded the spiral system. In studying say botany in the lowest class, the children would learn to observe the forms of plant life, and become familiar with the main facts of classificatory botany, the observing power being chiefly called into action. Then the subject would be dropped, and taken up years after from the physiological point of view, when the learners would be able to understand the chemical changes, the process of development, etc., as they could not in earlier years. Similarly all Herbartians know how the teaching of history proceeds from the mythological story, through biography to history, and some of us have seen the bad results of giving little children formularies which have no meaning for them, instead of seeking to develop in them through the discipline of home, and Bible teaching regarding the lives of the good, feelings of filial trust and reverence and obedience. For examples of this I may refer to Miss Bremner’s book on the Education of Girls.

In the accompanying [time-table] I have endeavoured to make a double classification in reference to the subjects taught, and the age of the learners. In discussing it I shall continue to use the word faculty, in spite of Herbartian protests, meaning thereby the power of doing certain special acts, which vary in character. We have the power of directing our attention to the objects of sense, or of withdrawing it from these, and becoming conscious only of the working of our own mind; we have, i.e., the faculty of observation and of reflection; by the use of the word faculty—etymologically, the power of doing—we need not dismember the Subject, but think of the One person as acting in different ways.

Part I., the humanities, should throughout the whole course be represented in all its branches; to it belong specially the cultur-studien. I think of some miserable starved specimens of girls I have known, fed upon an almost unmixed diet of either classics or mathematics; their physique had suffered, and they had no mental elasticity, their one idea being to win scholarships: they did this, but never flourished at the university, for want of all-round culture. Others I have known, who thought they could be high-class musicians by practising their fingers, without cultivating their minds; the results were lamentable; whereas those who gave half the time to music and half to cultur-studien, did more in the limited time. Is not the overwork of which many complain later, due to the too undivided work at one subject during the undergraduate period at the university? Mathematics relieves the strain of classics; specialising may be comparatively harmless to the full-grown man, but the child-specialist will grow up deformed.

Class teachers and specialists.Shall teaching be by class teachers or by specialists? Once every teacher was expected to take all the subjects with her class, now the tendency is towards specialisation. In junior classes the class mistress has many advantages over the specialist, for she knows what the children can do, the character and difficulties of each, and can adapt her teaching to her pupils. In any case she must exercise control over specialists, each of whom is inclined to think her subject the most important. She can get hold of children, and exercise a stronger influence than an occasional teacher, and the more subjects she teaches, the more intimate will be the relation to her pupils. On the other hand, it is not good for children to be shut up to one personality, though it is not well for them to be under too many, and there ought always to be one predominant; for this reason special arrangements are made in some boys’ schools for a tutor to follow the boy’s career all the way up the school. A class teacher too can correlate the different subjects, and make one help the other; being always at hand, she can give such help as is needed at odd times, to bring up laggards, and generally bring the intellectual to act upon the moral.

On the other hand, a specialist can attain to greater excellence, throw more life into the subject, keep up with new discoveries and methods; the best plan is perhaps for the class teacher, at least in junior classes, to hear and help to bring home to her pupils the teaching of specialists; this is desirable with some foreign teachers, who fail to understand the exact difficulties of English children. It can, however, only be done when the staff is large. The case is different with upper classes, which should be taught almost entirely by specialists, though there should be always some one person responsible for each class.

Head mistress.There seems to be a great difference between the kind of influence and control exercised by a Head Master, and a Head Mistress. The government of a boys’ school approaches more nearly to a republic, of a girls’ school to a constitutional monarchy; whilst classes and teachers change for the child each year, the head mistress is permanent, and follows each through all the classes, knowing her in all her phases. She reads marks, gives encouragement and admonition, and is in immediate relation with the other controlling influences, parents and teachers. Then—owing possibly to the fact that many women have not degrees—the head mistress permits herself to criticise and advise her teachers in a way that no young master fresh from the Honour Schools would permit. “I hear you go and listen to your teachers,” said the head of an Oxford College to me—his face, on my admitting it, expressed more than his words. Again, the head mistress considers herself responsible for good order in every class, whereas in boys’ schools the entire responsibility seems to rest on the individual master; this must always be the case to a certain extent; head mistresses try to avoid indiscipline by insisting on the training of teachers, and resorting to various devices, e.g., a junior teacher is made assistant to a senior, and entrusted with a class of her own, only when she has shown herself able; or—until she has well grasped the reins—she is set to teach in a large room in which there may be the head mistress and some other teacher capable of overawing the restless; or if she is a specialist the class teacher may be in the room. If the class is insubordinate owing to the bad teaching they get, there is of course no alternative but to change the teacher, or to improve her.

Economy of time.Here let me touch on some of the chief perplexities of modern teachers. Professor Miall (Thirty Years of Teaching) writes: “No one can write on education without insisting on new subjects; and yet the old claims are not relaxed. We must have science in several branches, modern languages (more efficient than heretofore), drawing and gymnastics, but classics and mathematics and divinity must be kept up and improved. Increased hours are not to be thought of, fewer lessons, shorter lessons, and not so much home-work, are the cry. More potatoes to carry, and a smaller basket to carry them in.... I believe the problem is not an insoluble one after all.”

The remedy, or perhaps I ought to say rather the mitigation of the teacher’s difficulties, is to be found in four directions. (1) In increasing the number of school years. The well-trained kindergarten child comes with an interest in lessons, a power of attention, a considerable amount of knowledge, and a clear understanding of much that formerly children knew nothing about, so that we gain time at the beginning. (2) Then if girls come earlier to school and stay later, if we have a girl from eight to eighteen, we can give many things in succession, which we once had to attempt simultaneously, when girls came “to finish” in a year, or at most two years. (3) If the hours are shorter, we can get more work done than was the case when children were wearied out with long hours; when I began my teaching life at Cheltenham, children came back sleepy for two hours of afternoon lessons, and returned to do home work, when they should have been in bed. (4) Better methods economise time, but this matter is so important that I shall insist on it at some length.

Economy of time in school.(a) First let me beg a teacher to think how easy it is to waste half an hour in one minute. You have thirty girls before you and you say: “Now, girls, I am going to give you a lesson, and you must be very attentive,” and so on for one minute. Let every teacher use as few words as possible. Let there be no preambles, no repetitions: “Now, my dear child, I wonder whether, if I asked, you would be able to tell me at once,” etc. Let the question be direct. “As I have said just now,” then do not say it again.

Wordiness must be avoided. We all know how wearisome it is to hear the same thing repeated in the same or different words. If we see this in a book, we skim; if it is done in lesson or lecture, we let our thoughts wander. Children do the same. I once heard a mistress of method recommend teachers to repeat themselves!

(b) Learn what not to say, e.g., a name that you do not want remembered. I knew some boys who were set to learn the names of the “Do nothing” kings; the memory must not be loaded with useless luggage.

(c) In giving a dictation, some teachers will habitually repeat twice; the consequence is that many do not listen the first time, and a third repetition is often asked for. Let it be understood that the sentence will be given distinctly, and not repeated.

(d) In English dictations do not ask that every word should be written, but emphasise those required—“Each separate parcel was received”. “I did not perceive his meaning.” “He did not succeed in persuading her to secede.”

(e) If a lesson has been set, we must ascertain that every one has learnt it, but there should be no questioning round and round a class. If a question and answer take one and a half minutes in a class of thirty, the whole time is gone, and the teacher has no distinct impression of which pupils have answered well; but if two questions in succession are asked of each and are promptly answered, the whole lesson may be considered to be known. Suppose there is a French dialogue to be heard, or an exercise has been learned, the teacher should not read the English; the sentences should all be numbered, the teacher call the number, and the child read the French from the English. The sentences in some books are not numbered, and some dialogue books are so printed, that the French cannot be covered; these are time-wasting books. A prompt reply must always be given; since we speak at the rate of over a hundred words in a minute, three children could say two short sentences each in half a minute. Thus a class of twenty could be heard in ten minutes, or if the class teacher is assisting, and takes half the class, five minutes only would be necessary, and time saved for oral composition, or reading exercises at sight, or training in pronunciation, etc. Some teachers, if unanswered, repeat a question. A girl who is not sure will often give an indistinct reply; one who does this robs her companions; the time of the class cannot be wasted thus, she must come in the afternoon and say it by herself; it will generally be found that her vocal powers are improved by this exercise.

(f) In many subjects a so-called written viva voce may be properly substituted—say six questions written on the blackboard with numbers, the answers promptly written in class, the papers of different girls exchanged, the faults underlined and the name of the corrector signed. The answers can be quickly marked by the class teacher at home. This has been dwelt on in Miss Andrews’ [paper].

If French verbs have to be heard, table should be suspended, and the teacher point to a tense and a number. Here is a portion of one:—

Of course this rapid questioning is suitable only when we wish to ascertain whether a lesson has been learned, not to such viva voces as are dialectic, intended to elucidate a subject and make pupils think.

Note-taking should never be allowed in junior classes; a syllabus may in some cases be profitably supplied, or the lesson may be an amplification of a text-book which the pupils have read, or questions may be set calculated to bring out the main points of the lesson. It should be an invariable rule that whatever is written is looked over and corrected; if this is not done, we shall certainly get bad writing, slovenly work and general inaccuracy. Should this not be possible without over-working the staff, the written work of the pupils must be diminished, or the number of teachers increased.

Corrections.The work of correcting is not mere drudgery, and it is essential, not for the sake of the pupil only, but of the teacher. Without written exercises she may imagine she is teaching, whilst her pupils are not learning. A lesson she felt to be good, she will find perhaps has been ill-adapted to the class, and therefore relatively bad. She will find she has not emphasised the important matters, she has given a confused picture in which one fails to see the wood for the trees. There are no teachers like one’s own pupils if one will learn of them: they convict us of disorder, inaccuracy, vagueness, etc.

It is important however that the teacher should be spared as much as possible unnecessary labour and waste of time. It is one of the most urgent duties of the head mistress to see that the teachers have not so much to do in the way of correcting, as to stupefy them, and deprive them of the time required for preparing lessons. The work of correcting should be reduced as far as practicable for the teacher, and made as profitable as possible for the pupil.

Suppose the teachers to be free after one o’clock, an hour may be given in the afternoon to correcting, and one in the evening. Language teachers, whose preparation is light, might do more, those who give lectures less; the work of correction must be fairly distributed, and a junior teacher trained to correct, by taking books first, and having these revised and given out in class, in her presence by a senior teacher.

Giving up books.Very strict rules must be made regarding the giving up of books at the right time by the pupils, and their being returned punctually in class by the teacher with explanations and comments. The books should always be in uniform, and some rules, e.g., respecting French being red, German, blue, etc., are very useful. Outside should be a label with the name of the pupil, the class and the boarding-house. This is important in the case of derelicts. All corrections should be made in red ink, and the exercise signed with the initials of the corrector.

Giving out books.Suppose we have a foreign language exercise to be given out. The teacher should come into class with memoranda of faults which have commonly occurred, and mention these to the class generally. Faults of mere carelessness should have a special indication in the book of the offender, and need not be spoken of further to the class. Each pupil should, before writing the next exercise, divide the page, write on one side correctly the sentence in which the fault occurred, underlining the words that were wrong, but on no account writing the mistakes again, and on the other explain why it was wrong.

When an arithmetic paper has been set the teacher may read out the answer, and each girl write W or R. The papers may be then collected, and it will only remain for the teacher to see whether the method was good. If not, she can write L W for “long way,” give explanations at the next lesson, and have the sum done again. Slates should not be used, nor loose papers, for such exercises.

If the paper is an essay, or answers to questions, the teacher should make notes of the subjects in which the class generally has gone wrong, and explain these. She may select specimens of broken figures, bad grammar, etc., but it is very profitable to read out good specimens; it is a great help to us to see others succeed, when we have tried and failed, and there is nothing that many need more than a word of encouragement to make them feel able to try. One who has done well may be requested to enter good paragraphs in a book (what I think Dr. Kennedy called a “Golden Book”) for the benefit of the class, and the worst writers desired to copy it; this would have done them no good, had they not tried and failed, but afterwards it helps us much to see how well another can express what we could not. The teacher may herself write in the book of the most painstaking pupil, things which she has failed to make clear, and ask her to copy that into the aforesaid book; it will do her good and help others. Certain conventional marks may be agreed on, e.g., L would stand for wordiness, C P for commonplace, S for satisfactory, G for good, Fig. for broken metaphors, etc.

Apparatus.Diagrams and apparatus may be reckoned amongst time-saving things, but like ready-made toys these may be less profitable to children than very simple things, which they put together themselves, and the more they make for themselves, the more they appreciate and profit by the labours of others. Fergusson, lying on his back with a brown paper roll for a telescope, and watching the movement of the stars, learned more than many who are provided with an elaborate orery, and the Edgworths learned more about the reason of a rainbow from their glass of water, than many from the lens. As Miss Leonard has said in her [paper], many things are not necessary in teaching elementary science, and it is a great pleasure to children to make anything for themselves. Here the kindergarten training will tell. For higher work well-equipped laboratories are good, but these are an expensive luxury, especially as new things are being constantly invented.

Physiological models are almost indispensable for class teaching, and excellent botanical ones are obtainable. A museum in which lessons can be given, and specimens referred to, is very desirable for natural science, but children should have their own private ones. Maps of physical geography should be constantly before the eye, but wall maps of political and historical geography cannot be so well seen; the teacher should be able to draw on the board or on paper, maps bringing out the special features of the lesson. It is understood that no class on history or geography is given without large maps both of space and time.[5]

[5] And here let me protest against the mischievous practice of having a round roller at the bottom, but a flat piece of wood at the top of maps. They are sure to be rolled on the latter and the map cut to pieces.

Working models of pumps, archimedean screws, mechanical powers, and steam engines are within the reach of most, and some simple forms of orery. There is an inexpensive one with the world inside a glass globe, on which are engraved a few circles, and this removes the difficulty which most children feel on seeing a pair of globes.

Marks, reports, prizes, place-taking.In former times when lessons were made less interesting, many ways were employed to keep up attention. Place-taking, by which each child took down all above her who failed to answer a particular question. This was most distracting; and so much depended on accident, that it was impossible by means of it to arrive at any trustworthy conclusions. Except for small children it has wholly gone out. The giving of counters has found more favour on the Continent, but this lends itself to barter, and anything which fosters the habit of considering what we can get by knowledge, is destructive of that calmness, that “wise passiveness” which is as necessary for mental, as for physical assimilation; it is equivalent to playing games, or running about during dinner-time. Some record there should be of each exercise, some “stock-taking” at intervals, and these intervals should for little ones be short, for time passes more slowly with them. If the head mistress each week looks over the mark-book in the presence of the class and the teacher, she is kept in touch with all, comes to know if there are girls who are wasting their time, and is able to give encouragement or reproof, and strengthen the hands of teachers. If there are a great number of lessons returned, she may find that a specialist is making unreasonable demands; she sees if corrections have been omitted by the teacher—in fact, notices things which, if left to the end of the term, might have resulted in considerable mischief. It is undesirable, however, to take up much of the teacher’s time in adding up marks, and placing pupils in order of merit; it may be left to individual class teachers to do as they think best; there is no need in this for uniformity of practice, and it is always well to give every teacher as much liberty in following her own methods, as is consistent with the general management.

In language exercises the number of faults can be written at the end, and classified as mere careless ones, and those for which there is at least some excuse—the former being counted double. In these and other exercises a maximum say of ten marks may be given; in many the teacher can give only a general estimate, but when returning books, she can show why she puts a higher estimate on one than on another. In junior classes the marks may be added, read with comments, and perhaps sent home each week. A sort of weather chart is used by us in the youngest classes—showing for each week whether they have risen or fallen in the number of marks.

Prizes, in part determined by work done at home, are dangerous, the temptation to get undue help is great; a conscientious child will reject such assistance as would be really good for her, lest she should gain an unfair advantage. Prizes given on the result of examinations, provided they are given not to the best, but to all who have attained a certain standard, are less objectionable; we cannot make it too clear that good may be better than best, and that the only praise we should desire is to hear: “She hath done what she could”.

Public prize-givings seem to me very undesirable. A terminal report parents may reasonably look for, and words of blame or encouragement may be made very helpful to the child. Punishments in the shape of doubled lessons, lines, etc., are objectionable; if a duty has been neglected, or badly done, it has to be done at an inconvenient time—say in the afternoon. A fine may be required for untidiness and damage—in order to compensate others for trouble and expense, but to inflict a fine for breaking rules is altogether wrong. At a school I knew, where this was done, girls would deliberately break rules, e.g., talk at prohibited times, and say they were going to have “three pennyworth”. Into a matter of right and wrong, money cannot enter; so also conduct prizes should, I think, never be given; the proper reward for doing right is a good conscience, and the trust, friendship, respect of others.

Use of examinations.Having lived through the pre-examination period, and seen the great evils which resulted from there being no test, I cannot join in the popular condemnation. There is no unmixed good, and many mistakes, which we learn to avoid later, are made when a system is new. I shall regard examinations only from the point of view of their value educationally. (1) They are useful as a test of what we really know; preparation for them enables us to find out what are our permanent possessions; (2) competitive examination compels us to set these in order, and estimate their relative importance. (3) Examinations tend to produce presence of mind, mental self-control, (4) to suppress wordiness and abolish a florid style, and (5) to make us feel the supreme importance of clearness and accuracy.

Examining is a difficult art, and examiners have to learn their métier. All are not perfect; the process of reading papers is exhausting, and after reading ninety-nine, an examiner may fail to appreciate the exquisite thought and philosophic insight of the hundredth. It is possible he may form an erroneous opinion regarding some unusual performance—there have been reviewers who failed to appreciate the early volumes of Wordsworth, Tennyson and Browning; there are examiners, however, really sympathetic, laborious, and anxious to see what has been done (which is limited) rather than find out what has not been done (which is unlimited), and these may give much help both by their criticisms and their encouragement. It is good for all of us to have our work tested by a competent critic.

An internal examination, if well conducted, is most valuable, as it can better follow the work, but on the other hand, many teachers feel that an internal examination places them too much at the mercy of caprice, or personal feeling, and hence prefer a central one, such as the University Locals.

Regular attendance.Schools must insist on punctuality in returning, and no unnecessary absences should be allowed. Children who are absent cannot follow the teaching in the next lesson, and laggards demoralise the class and distract the teacher, who feels she is not understood.

Rapport with the class.In conclusion let me say the teacher must have the power of holding the class. She must be sensitive to the least inattention, quick to discern whether it is her fault or that of the pupil, and take her measures accordingly, acting always upon the wholesome maxim (which should never be heard outside the common room), certainly never whispered to parents, that it is always the teacher’s fault, if pupils do not learn. When she fails to establish the rapport between herself and her class, she must try to discover the cause of her failure. Young children, like wild animals, are tamed by the eye, and a class is controlled by a teacher who sees everything that goes on. If a teacher when using the board turns away and writes in silence, a restless child is almost sure to play some amusing trick, and it may take a considerable time to recover attention. If experiments are performed, the teacher, like the conjurer, should never cease talking or questioning. If she cannot manage to do both, she must have an assistant.

Dress, manner, etc.She must avoid awkward tricks. I knew two very distinguished teachers whose lectures were admirable, but one had a habit of pulling a tuft of hair, and another would stuff his handkerchief carefully into his folded hand, and then draw it out again—to the great distraction of the class. We have all heard of the parliamentary orator and his button.

A study of the Pedagogical Seminary for August, 1897, would be profitable to teachers careless about externals. The article is called “A Study in Morals”. The question was put in writing and answered by twenty-three boys and one hundred and sixty girls: “Reflect which teachers, from kindergarten to college, you have liked best, and been influenced most by, and try to state wherein the influence was felt. Account if you can for the exceptional influence of that particular teacher. Was it connected with dress, manner, voice, looks, bearing, learning, religious activity, etc.? Four out of five mentioned the manner of the teacher as exerting an influence. One in three speaks of the voice, one in four speaks of dress.” These externals, as we are apt to call them, are the outcome of the personality, or they would not exert influence. We must therefore so order our inner being that manner, voice, dress, should express self-respect and unselfishness, right feeling, love of order, good taste.

If I were writing a treatise on psychology, I might insist on the teacher’s gaining an insight into the contents of the child’s mind—what Herbart calls apperception-masses, but in this short introduction I can only touch on the subject. I subjoin a short [list of books] not too difficult for teachers. I conclude with a few common rules derived from psychological observation and a few practical hints for the schoolroom.

A FEW PRACTICAL PRECEPTS.

This is not a treatise on psychology but a practical hand-book for young teachers. Before entering on the special subjects, it may be well to say something of the application of the principles which are familiar to all who are trained, and dwell upon a few of the most important.

(1) There is the fundamental precept, awaken interest. Have you seen the Medusa spreading its tentacles idly on the waves? Have you watched the change as it fastens on its prey? So does the mind grasp that which is suitable for its nourishment. As the intelligence of the child awakens, it no longer perceives in the lazy, dreamy way in which the infant is conscious of a light; it apperceives, takes into itself the object, the word, the thought, and grows thereby.

(2) Avoid distractions. The senses and the mind must be fixed on the subject of instruction. When a bird is to be taught to speak, he is placed in a dark room, shielded from the distractions of sight, until the words are acquired, then the use of other senses than hearing is permitted; so little children require more quietness and isolation than older ones.

Distractions are not all of sense. The mind is distracted by fear. How dreadful are the old pictures of the dame, teaching rod in hand, or the master with his cane; some may remember the music teacher ready to rap the knuckles, and know how all sense of harmony was destroyed. And it is so also with the seeking of rewards. I hope place-taking and prizes and scholarships will one day follow the rod and the cane, and children be led from their earliest years to feel, what is really natural to them, that knowledge is in itself a pleasure and a good.

(3) Proceed from the known to the unknown. Observe the laws of association; for this a teacher must be in intellectual sympathy with her pupils—know and feel by an inner sense, when mind is responding to mind. I have heard some so-called teachers, who spoke like a book, who were lecturers; they saw their own thoughts, but not those of their pupils, and were therefore unable to lead them on. E.g., if a sum was wrong, they would say, “Do it thus,” instead of inquiring into the cause of the mistake. In questioning they would not try to see into the child’s mind.

It is more difficult to enter into intellectual sympathy with very little ones, hence we need specially able teachers for them. It is also better for class teachers not to change too often, as it takes time to get into sympathy with a new class. Of course specialists have to do this; it is one reason why cæteris paribus they are less successful than class teachers.

(4) Proceed in classifying by noticing first the likenesses, then the differences—in other words, proceed from the genus to the species. There are some excellent chapters on this in Rosmini’s Method of Education, translated by Mrs. Grey, p. 15.

(5) Make lessons pleasant. This does not imply that the act of learning should be always easy or amusing. Children like to feel they are making progress, and a teacher wearies them who is always trying to be amusing, but does not really get them on. Porridge has a very plain taste, but for everyday fare even children prefer it to tarts for breakfast. A London confectioner was asked, if he did not find the many boys he employed make depredations. “No,” he said, “when first they come I tell them they may eat what they like; in a few days they make themselves sick and eat no more.” There was a book called the Decoy, a story mixed with conversations on grammar; children always managed to get the story without the grammar. They like sums and history for regular meals, fairy tales for dessert.

(6) Teaching must be adapted to the mental state of the pupil, and be just a little above his unassisted intelligence. It is a worse fault to teach below than above the powers of the child. I shall never forget my indignation at having a book given me, which was below my powers, nor the stimulus of trying to do what was hard. One who was afterwards a distinguished teacher, told me how the Maurice lectures helped him, by making him feel there were regions of thought on which he had not yet entered. Knowledge quite within reach does not promote progress. A friend who had a night school was told by its members, “We want to be taught something as we can’t understand”. They meant something they could not learn without help; they wanted to overcome difficulties.

(7) Form right habits. We should as far as possible prevent the making of mistakes even once. A child when reading the Bible miscalled the word patriarch, reading it partridge; when an old man, he never saw the word without recalling his error. Hence we should not give children misspelt words, or bad grammar to correct, or let them write exercises before the ear has been cultivated to know what is right. I knew a music master who would anticipate mistakes, and stop the pupil, saying: “You shall not play that wrong note”.

On the other hand each repetition of a right action makes it easier, and the prime work of the educator is to form right habits; these should become instinctive, and so set free thought for ever higher and more perfect performance.

(8) Awaken and sustain the spirit of inquiry. We need, however, to be very careful not to ask questions, which the child cannot possibly answer. This encourages mere guessing, and the habit of deciding upon insufficient data. We should question the pupils, and build on their knowledge, but as they get older the viva voce questioning may be overdone—and for the highest classes it would be simply a distraction. For these it is well to give questions to be thought out, and answered in writing. Pascal’s father shut him up alone to find out the translation of a classical author; there are so many helps now, that people rely upon them when they might gain vigour by grappling with difficulties. No intellectual habit is more essential than the habit of patient, sustained inquiry, that described by Newton when he said: “I keep the subject of my inquiry continually before me, till the first dawning opens gradually by little and little to the perfect day”.

(9) Foster intellectual ambition. Help the child to feel the joy of surmounting difficulties, of climbing the heights. This invigorates the intellectual life. Some can remember how, e.g., they grappled with the dull work of early mathematical study, that they might one day learn to solve the problems of astronomy, or went through the labour of learning irregular verbs, that they might read the poetry and philosophy of Greece.

(10) Put before pupils the highest ideals which they can appropriate. These are not the same at each stage of development. The little child desires first to have something, and this is not wrong. Later it feels more the need of love, of approbation, and this is a legitimate and right motive; it is generally his best guide, until he can exercise himself, irrespective of the outward voice, to have a “conscience void of offence”. We have to teach him to discriminate voices which are in harmony with, from those in discord from, that inward voice, and to make this ultimately his supreme law.

(11) The ultimate ideal or final cause should be implied in all that we teach, viz., the attainment of the perfect development of the individual, through bringing each into harmony with the environment, the universal, and thereby on the other hand helping to perfect the whole. For this, wisdom and self-denial and sympathy with the noblest and the best are to be sought, and above all with the One, the Infinite Wisdom revealed in Nature, in the world of thinking beings and in the self-conscious mind. All should feel in their inmost soul what Milton has expressed:—

How charming is Divine philosophy,

Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose,

But musical as is Apollo’s lute,

And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,

Where no dull surfeit reigns.

The Bureau of Education, U.S.A., issues valuable reports each year, which are presented to the Teachers’ Guild and a few favoured places. They always contain a great deal of interesting matter.

The Pedagogical Seminary, edited by Dr. Stanley Hall, should be studied by all who desire to keep in touch with the new scientific methods. No. for Aug., 1897, is specially good.

PART I. HUMANITIES.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE GENERALLY—READING, WRITING, GRAMMAR, COMPOSITION.

By Dorothea Beale.

I propose to treat in order of the different subjects of our school curriculum. The first of these is language generally.

Reading.As a branch of formal instruction, we begin with reading. A more aggravating subject of dispute can hardly be found than that which relates to the teaching of reading. The pure Fröbellian will have none of it before the child is seven years old, and occasionally children do come to school unable to read, but with the senses awakened to all sorts of other relations except that of articulate sounds to written forms. In spite of the reproaches of those who build the sepulchres of the prophets, we teach reading when a child seems ready for it, and maintain that the principles of Fröbel are best carried out when we improve on his methods, and adapt ourselves to new circumstances; we urge that the children from intellectual homes are different from the class of children with whom he had most to do.

When begun.I would not press reading upon infants, nor require the close and continuous attention that reading implies, but as soon as the appetite for any special kind of knowledge is shown, we may conclude, on Fröbellian principles, that the child is fit for it. Our order is: (1) drawing, (2) writing, (3) reading.

First lessons.The kindergarten child has learned to draw lines, straight and curved, developing into simple objects and curious patterns—rude picture-writing, it may be called. We lead on to writing in some such way as this.

Alphabet.“How did men at first send silent messages to one another when they were far off? If you wanted a doll, you might draw a picture of one and send it to mother on your birthday. A man might make a picture of a fish, and send it to a fisherman with a piece of money, and the fisherman would understand; or one might want to sell a sheep, and send a picture to his neighbour; this would be easier than sending the sheep. In fact, the first letter of the alphabet is a rude picture of the head of an ox,

. People were not particular, as we see on old monuments, which way the letter stood, and so we have it sometimes topsy-turvy, sometimes sideways,

; this is like a Greek alpha,

,

. Beth in Hebrew was a dwelling, two tents

, Gimel

, the camel’s head and long neck. Delta

, a door. Kappa Κ, a bird with its wings out. Rho Ρ, a man’s head. But with pictures only it is hard to make sentences; e.g., if you wanted to say, “I have found some water,” you might draw

, but you would have to find some way of showing whether you meant ‘I have’ or ‘I want’; and if somebody sent you the picture of a man walking, you might not know whether you were expected to come or to go. It is hard to represent verbs by pictures, though it is so easy in speaking.”

Some pictures of Egyptian hieroglyphics and explanations will here be found to interest children much—-part of their drawing lesson might be to copy a hieroglyph alphabet. Then we might enlarge on the need for words to tell people what to do. Baby says “mamma,” “doll,” “puss,” but it wants also to say “come,” “give,” “go,” and this cannot be pictured, so people seem to have tried to represent sounds by drawing a picture of the mouth making the different sounds.

I suppose the first sound most babies make is a sort of mumbling, and if they open their mouths we get a sound like ma; now in all languages ma stands for mother, with some slight alterations. What is M like? Is it not much like a mouth shut up? and suppose you add a round shape to represent an open mouth you would get something like picture-writing ma. You might put the two side by side, a picture of a woman and ma—the Egyptians often had the two signs. The next easy sound is pa, and this stands in all languages that I know, for father. How could this be written? If you say ap you will notice a movement of the lips, which open with a sort of bursting sound. We may represent that movement by a stroke and put a round after it to stand for the open mouth P. There is another sound very like P, but not quite so sharply said. We hear it in ab. We can make the stroke as before, and put the loop lower down, to show that ba is a quieter sound than pa—so shorthand writers make a long stroke for the b and a short one for p (│b ╷p) and put no loop.

Thus we get three lip letters, but we can shut up the mouth in the middle—half shut it and we get n, which is half m. The breath will have to come of course through the nose. We can move the tongue suddenly from the teeth and get d as in ad, and write a stroke as before, but put a loop representing the open mouth behind it; the sound nearest to it which we hear in at would have the loop at the top,

, as we had in pa, but in our alphabet the loop has disappeared and we have only t. In shorthand we write a long horizontal stroke for d and a short one for t. Thus we have three dentals.

We may also shut up the throat and let the breath go through the nose, as in sing, or we may make the sudden movement quite in the throat. We could take the bird shape but think of the two strokes as if pointing down the throat in Κ, and for the softer sound only one pointer Γ, this was the Greek G. We make it rounder at the bottom now. For the first of the throat sounds we have no single letter, but we write an n to show it is a nose letter, and a g to show the shutting up is to be done in the throat.

So now you see we have got nine letters—three made with the lips, three with the tongue near the middle of the mouth, three in the throat. Three are made by sending the breath through the nose, three are made by a sudden opening and sending the breath through it with force, and three by sending the breath more gently. The names given to these different sorts of letters I may now give and the shorthand signs:—[6]

	Nasals.		Hard.		Soft.
Lip letters	m		p	╷	b	│
Tooth letters	n		t	╴	d	─
Throat letters	ng		k	‿	g	∪

[6] I give the characters of the script, which is much simpler for children than Pitman’s.

Reading books published by A. Chrysogon Beale (Sonnenschein) are perhaps the best for beginners. There are coloured pictures of the mouth; the deaf alphabet is given, and the words which are not written phonetically are gradually introduced. Sonnenschein’s books are also good, and Miss Soames’ Introduction to Phonetics.

Thus the child could be taught to observe the movements for articulation, be interested in early writings, and prepared to look intelligently at ancient monuments.

In teaching, the sounds of the letters will be given of course, not their names, and the alphabet will be from the first classified, and a basis laid for philological study. A shorthand alphabet will be learned side by side without trouble, and besides this, the pronunciation will be improved—all this without any over-pressure or giving any instructions unsuited for a small child.

In a later lesson the meaning of an aspirate should be explained, and added to each of the mutes; we then get four varieties under the heads of labial, dental and guttural. The sibilants, which are in some respects aspirates, may be classified, and the feeble lip aspirate in when (written in old English hwen) should be noticed. The relation of palatals l and r, and the different kinds of palatals, may be dwelt on.

I give a comprehensive table, founded on one in Professor Key’s volume on the alphabet. The three horizontal planes give gutturals, dentals and labials. The front plane the sharp mutes, the back the flat mutes; the right plane the sharp aspirates, the left the flat aspirates; the sibilants are classed as dental aspirates and the nasals appended.

Other classifications are noticed in the paper on [Spelling Reform].

The classification of vowels is more difficult, and it may be pointed out how easily these pass into one another. How difficult it is too for English people to sustain a pure vowel, o, without passing into u, a into ai. The vocal triangle as given in Brachet’s dictionary, adapted from Helmholtz and Brücke, is perhaps most easily understood.

For those who do not use the alphabet of the maître phonétique, tables such as those of Larousse should be always at hand to hang on the wall, when French lessons are given. These tables enable one to draw attention to sounds which English people do not discriminate, or which offer special difficulty, e.g., ê, è, é, ais, ai, ou, u, eu, e; to the feebly nasalised vowels as in French pain, pronounced Anglice, pang; to the formation of the sound constantly changed by English people into ou, when a vowel follows, e.g., loui for lui; to the proper pronunciation of moi, mwa, not mwau; to the addition of a syllable, as in deer for di+r; to the attractive power of labial consonants, making impossible inpossible, and so on. Systematic teaching saves much time.

For older pupils it is an instructive and amusing exercise to work out the combinations of two vowels to produce a multitude of mixed or diphthongal forms; such an exercise will do much to teach delicate discrimination of sounds, and it is important early to cultivate the ear and the vocal organs. I append the diphthong table—to read it proceed from one vowel to another, following the arrow head.

Interchange of letters.The classification of letters is of the greatest importance as the basis of linguistic study, and so the matter should early be made interesting and intelligible, not only for the sake of pronunciation, but as accounting for, and simplifying a great many rules of grammar, and enabling pupils to acquire quickly a large vocabulary, when they begin foreign tongues, by observing such laws as are expounded by Grimm and Vernier, and thus helping them later to recognise that there is such a thing as a science of language, something more than a wearisome list of empirical rules and unreasonable exceptions. Thus reading, if taught as it should be, conforms to the psychological principles (1) that we should develop the powers of observation, (2) let the child do or make something, (3) show the uses of what is produced, (4) plant some root principles which may grow up and bear fruit in later studies, (5) associate the different studies with one another. The reason why teaching is often so dull, is that teachers do not take a large view of the field of instruction, but work like day-labourers, and adopt that fatal maxim, you should “throw it all off, out of school hours”. “I am a gentleman after four o’clock,” said a schoolmaster! Now I should like those who are going to teach the alphabet to read Max Müller’s Science of Thought in their leisure hours. It is too ponderous a volume to buy—660 pages—but it should be in the Teachers’ Library. There is a most interesting chapter on the origin of roots, which he traces to imperatives. I need hardly say that the two volumes of Lectures on Language should be familiar to all, and that the teacher should work out roots for herself after the model of “Mar”. She must not, however, bury the important things under a mass of erudition; the larger her store the more should she be able to select by the discursive faculty (I ask pardon of Herbart) what is most illustrative of her subject for the special class: it is very important to know what not to say.

Melville Bell’s Visible Speech is very instructive reading, and all should be familiar with Le Mestr.: Fonetiq of Paul Passy. I abstain from recommending some of the very learned books “made in Germany”. These are not suited to persons of limited leisure, but are rather for the Grammarian who said:—

Let me know all! Prate not of most or least,

Painful or easy,

Even to the crumbs, I’d fain eat up the feast,

Ay, nor feel queasy.

If reading is begun early, taught in the way suggested, and the sounds insisted on, to the exclusion of the absurd spelling, which pretends to produce cat from see ay tee, children seem to get on slowly at first, but the progress is rapid, when they have once mastered the signs, i.e., as rapid as is possible with our cacography.

In an excursus I have insisted on the great importance of reformed spelling. It is difficult to get people to agree, but any system, Soames’ or Pitman’s or Bell’s, would be better than our present chaos. If Government would give liberty to those who teach a phonetic system, things would improve, and children would easily read ordinary characters afterwards. All who write shorthand must spell phonetically.

Voice production.Not only right articulation needs attention, but what is called voice production. The health of many a delicate girl may be greatly strengthened by habituating her to breathe as she ought, and the whole class of what are called clergymen’s throats are in great measure, if not entirely due to the improper use of the organs of speech. There will be little difficulty later, if we, from the beginning, make children stand and breathe rightly, speak and read with due attention to stops and emphasis, and to those subtle changes of voice on which expression depends so much.

Children should never be allowed to learn a poem without preparation, or to memorise it by gabbling it over; as well might we expect them to become musicians by rattling off pieces unstudied, without regard to time and accent. At first, the poems to be learned should be repeated viva voce by the teacher to the little ones. Later, a special study should be made of anything set to a class, and it should be learned by the mind, not the ear. In France and Germany a poem is not set until it has been discussed and explained, points of importance insisted on, special beauties, etc.

A reading class should not be one in which each girl has to listen to the bad reading of another. I know no manual so good for the teacher, and for elder pupils, as Professor Meiklejohn’s Expressive Reading. There are some good remarks in a brief paper by Mr. Birrell in Barnett’s Teaching and Organisation, and I may draw attention to page 131 of Spenser’s chapters on Teaching, for all these books should be in the Teachers’ Library.

From the first, children should learn poetry by heart—poetry suited to their understanding. A child was heard to drone forth:—

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower

The lowing herd doth to the moon complain.

The reflections of the poet were utterly uninteresting to him; he did not perceive the absurdity of cows ascending a tower.

I cannot sufficiently deprecate the setting of melodramatic pieces chosen not for their intrinsic beauty, but to show the power of execution—to borrow a musical term. The pieces learned need not be all poetry. Some of Hans Andersen’s Mährchen are excellent. Scenes in which several can take part help to give animation.

Learning by heart.Throughout their school life children should continue to store their memory, during the years in which it is easy to learn, with masterpieces in prose and poetry; because learning by heart was formerly overdone it is much neglected now. These early acquisitions are a treasure all one’s life. Familiarity with really good writers is the first thing necessary for writing well; it is good to let children write from memory passages learned instead of giving dictation.

Recitation.Looking at the higher aspects, I can hardly exaggerate the importance of getting children to speak with the understanding and right expression; for this teachers must make them enter into the meaning of the writer, realising the imagery, the feelings, the thoughts; this calls out right emotion, and thus elocution becomes of no small value as a part of moral training. Plato dwells much on the influence for good or evil upon the actor who realises the character he represents, and as Aristotle has said that through the drama one may purify the soul, so we may help our pupils to feel all the grand music of our great poets, and to enter with fuller sympathy into the teaching of the sacred scriptures of the world.

There is an excellent article in the volume of Special Reports issued by the Education Office by Mr. Dale of Merton College, from which I give extracts.

“Before the reading of Geibel’s poem on Frederick Barbarossa (the story of the sleeping kaiser who wakes to grasp the sceptre once more) a scholar was bidden to relate the fairy tale of the sleeping princess.

“The analysis of the piece into sections was given, each with a brief title indicating its subject-matter, and the exposition of their relation to one another, showing it had a distinct purpose and value.”

Oral composition.The practice of composition may begin systematically in quite early years. Mr. Dale has given an interesting account of the way in which children are taught orally, and one who attended a Ferien-Kursus at Jena has explained the matter fully to me. First, the teacher always insisted upon answers to questions being complete sentences. I quote once more from Mr. Dale, but the whole article should be read.

“The first division of the subject in the German code is ‘exercises in speaking’; and the careful and admirable training in oral expression is worthy of special attention. It is of frequent occurrence to hear a boy when called upon for an answer speak with but little hesitation for two or three minutes, using grammatical and connected language, and displaying a vocabulary which might have been supposed to be too wide for any but adults. This result is the working, primarily, of a principle which has always lain deep in the German conception of teaching, and which has been reinforced by the influence of Herbart and his followers, that in every lesson the child should take an active part. It is given as a precept to every seminar student, ‘Let the teacher speak little, the children much’.

“The teaching of composition is one of the most valuable parts of the work done in the German schools. It is begun at a very early age and practised steadily throughout the course.

“The composition is conducted by word of mouth. ‘Who,’ asks the teacher, ‘can give me a sentence to begin the first section?’ One is suggested, and criticised. ‘Can any one else give me a better?’ The others then suggest, if necessary with a little help, their variants, and finally one version is accepted. In the case of the youngest children this is written on the blackboard. The same process is pursued with each section till the piece is finished. With the older boys the blackboard is not used, save for the titles indicating the outline of each section. The class then writes it out from memory.

“The fundamental presupposition of this method is the inability of young pupils to compose and think out a series of ideas without much assistance, even though the subject be a familiar one. Their thoughts need concentration and guidance, and this help is given them by the working out of the matter in class. Yet individual liberty of expression is by no means sacrificed. The sentences are the children’s own, and for the purpose of good composition the oral method is invaluable. It proceeds on the sound principle that a child should be taught to test style by the ear and not by the eye alone. It makes short work of a lumbering period.

“On the other hand, the activity and interest of every scholar are kept up by the desire to improve on his fellows, and to have his own version accepted. Constant practice, moreover, is gained in the art of finding synonyms, and it affords an admirable opportunity of instruction in grammar and orthography. Indeed, the practising school at Jena, following a suggestion of Professor Ziller, removes grammatical explanations altogether from the reading piece, and transfers them to the child’s own composition, an expedient which avoids the fault of defacing the beauty and unity of a poem by picking it to pieces for the sake of illustration.”

Sometimes a picture is used to form a subject of conversation, questioning and explanation. Thus is the valuable power of oral composition formed, a good vocabulary obtained, taste cultivated, and that respect for the mother tongue which is so sadly wanting in many English people. Children gain a facility in writing which no dissection into different clauses, enlargements of predicates, etc., can give. Rules are introduced with the reasons for such rules, and only at last a grammar is placed in the pupil’s hands—even as a Euclid is given when it is all known. I have heard a small kindergarten boy stand up and give in a clear and quiet way quite a long story which he had studied. The habit of accurate expression will thus be formed and the thought become clear, for it is language alone which gives form and body to thought—gives it “a local habitation to a name”.

In the higher schools, Mr. Dale writes, the practice of oral composition is continued (p. 573):—

“The practice of oral paraphrase which we saw existing in the elementary schools here reaches its climax. The scholars are bidden to prepare a scene or passage of some author, or to read up some period of literary history at home. The next morning, before the lesson begins, one of them is called upon to give a summary of what he has read, a sort of short essay by word of mouth—lasting three or four minutes, and sometimes even longer. The correctness both of style and matter, with which this difficult task is performed, needs to be heard in order to be fully appreciated at its true value. It combines many of the advantages gained from a debating society with those of an essay. It cultivates readiness of speech and thought, while, like an essay, by enabling the teacher to gauge the points on which interest has centred, it lends him a proper starting-place for his lecture.”

This oral composition tells very advantageously upon the written work, and could be introduced more generally into English schools; but from quite early years children should be accustomed to write answers to questions upon their lessons, or to tell something that they know. Later, subjects may be given to be thought out or a résumé given of a lesson; and lastly the pupils of the higher class required to read up a subject, and write upon it, or compose an essay.

Grammar taught inductively.As regards the formal teaching of English grammar, I shall say but little. I may instead refer my readers to the long and interesting paper by Dr. Abbott in the volume edited by Mr. Barnett, and to his book, How to Tell the Parts of Speech. The system he recommends will form a good foundation for the acquisition of foreign tongues. Pupils are led to make their own definitions, and in part their own grammar. A class thus taught French by our present Mistress of Method were astonished and delighted to find they knew already the chief rules of their French grammar, when at length it was placed in their hands. It is impossible and unnecessary to insist upon all grammatical forms being obtained inductively; life is too short to carry it out in all its details, and so the tabulation and learning of various paradigms becomes necessary; but pupils should learn to form them. I am sure there is much less use in the old-fashioned parsing exercises than is generally supposed; parsing becomes mechanical; nine-tenths of what they have to write children know, and need not think about, and when sentences are given to parse, certain words only should be underlined for parsing. I first questioned its usefulness when I found at school that one who was so dull, that we used to regard her as somewhat of an idiot, always came to the top when we took places for parsing. What the French call analyse logique—classifying all words and phrases according to their function in the sentence—is valuable.

Logical and grammatical analysis.Mr. Blakiston in his School Management endorses this view, and recommends the teaching of logical even before grammatical parsing. Mr. Fearon in School Inspection writes: “What is wanted is to get as quickly as possible a notion of the structure of the sentence, and the logical relation of its parts. The teaching of English should be based on the analysis of sentences. Some may think the teaching of English grammar by means of logical analysis more difficult than the old method. I am perfectly convinced from observation and experience, both as a teacher and as an inspector, that this is not the case. They are not more difficult than the terms which it is necessary to use in teaching grammar on the old system. The great point is to make children have an intelligent understanding of the real things which underlie them and which they represent.”

Professor Woodward (Monographs on Education) writes: “There is need of preparatory drill in forms and language study, to bring a child to the intelligent study of construction, but this done, the analytical method of sentence-study commends itself. Intelligence is called into play, for the pupil is no longer studying words as words, but as the expression of thought; memory is subordinate and reason to the front—nouns, verbs, etc., are in some languages stamped with distinguishing marks, and can be recognised by their forms, but in English the power of any word and its influence in the sentence are rarely dependent on its form; the part of speech cannot be determined at sight, but by its connection and dependency.”

The analysis of sentences is of course very important in the study of foreign languages. Hosts of rules about conjunctions, governing moods, etc., can be discarded if once children can recognise a dependent sentence. Various models of analysis are given in all good grammars. Here is a form which has many recommendations as showing clearly the structure of a complex sentence:—

Another matter which should have great attention is the use of tenses. There is nothing perhaps so difficult for foreigners to acquire as the power of discriminating tenses. Owing to the want of the present and future imperfect in French verbs, many children get an idea that imperfect means past, and few know until they learn Greek that “I have written” is a present tense. Such a table as this can be used to contrast languages:—

The authors of the Parallel Grammar Series have sought to reduce the time occupied in learning grammar. In one book the general rules only need be given, and the variations from these rules appear in other grammars. Thus the tiresome repetitions in each grammar of the letters of the alphabet—the definitions of the parts of speech of many rules regarding concords—could appear once for all.

Let me in conclusion quote a portion of the resolutions concerning the teaching of English passed by the Conference called by the Committee of Ten.[7]

[7] Report of the Committee of Ten on secondary studies, 1892, Washington.

“The main direct object of the teaching of English in schools is (1) to enable the pupil to understand the expressed thoughts of others and to give expression to thoughts of his own; and (2) to cultivate a taste for reading, to give the pupil some acquaintance with good literature, and to furnish him with the means of extending that acquaintance. Incidentally, other ends may be subserved, but such subsidiary interests should never be allowed to encroach on the two main purposes. Though it may be necessary to consider these separately, in practice they should never be dissociated in the mind of the teacher, and their mutual dependence should be kept constantly present to the mind of the pupils.

“If the pupil is to secure control of the language as an instrument for the expression of his thoughts, it is necessary (1) that during the period of life when imitation is the chief motive principle in education, he should be kept so far as possible away from the influence of bad models and under the influence of good models, and (2) that every thought which he expresses, whether orally or on paper, should be regarded as a proper subject for criticism as to language. Thus every lesson should become a part of the pupil’s training in English. There can be no more appropriate moment for a brief lesson in expression than the moment when the pupil has something which he is trying to express.

“In addition to this incidental training, appropriate special instruction in English should form a part of the curriculum from the beginning. This special instruction may be considered under three heads: A. Language and composition. During the first two years at school, children (under eight) may acquire some fluency of expression by reproducing orally in their own words stories told them by their teachers, and by inventing stories about objects and pictures.

“In the third school year children should begin to compose in writing; they should copy and write from dictation and from memory short and easy passages of prose and verse.

“The subjects assigned should gradually increase in difficulty. (The paraphrasing of poetry is not to be commended.) Pains should be taken to improve the child’s vocabulary by suggesting to him, for the expression of his thoughts, better words than those he may himself have chosen. He should also be trained to perceive the larger divisions of thought which are conventionally indicated by paragraphs. The teacher should bear in mind the necessity of correctness in the formation of sentences and paragraphs.

“Compositions and all other written exercises should receive careful and appropriate criticism, and the staff of instructors should be large enough to protect every teacher from an excess of this peculiarly exacting and fatiguing work.

“B. Formal or systematic grammar. Not earlier than twelve years of age the study of formal grammar, with drill in fundamental analysis, may be taken up. It should not be pursued as a separate study longer than is necessary to familiarise the pupil with the main principles. Probably a single year will be sufficient. Subsequently, although grammatical analysis may properly accompany reading and the study of composition, it should not be regarded as a separate subject in the curriculum. The teaching of formal grammar should aim principally to enable the pupil (1) to recognise the parts of speech, and (2) to analyse sentences both as to structure and as to syntax. Routine parsing should be avoided.

“With regard to the study of formal grammar the Conference wishes to lay stress on three points: (1) a student may be taught to speak and write good English without receiving any special instruction in formal grammar; (2) the study of formal grammar is valuable as training in thought, but has only an indirect bearing on the art of writing and speaking; and (3) the teaching of formal grammar should be as far as possible incidental, and should be brought into close connection with the pupil’s work in reading and composition. These principles explain the considerable reduction recommended by the Conference in the amount of time allowed to this study.

“The best results in the teaching of English in high schools cannot be secured without the aid given by the study of some other language. Latin and German are especially suited to this end.

“Every teacher, whatever his department, should feel responsible for the use of good English by his pupils.”

One would like to say much on the study of language generally, and not only of its mere formal elements—of the “fossil poetry” to be found in figures of speech; of the metaphors which express the same thought in different languages. I give the names of some useful books, but there are many other good grammars.

Amongst English grammars I may mention those by Morris and Mason, various books by Dr. Abbott, and the Parallel Grammar Series. There are good grammars, too numerous to mention, suitable for school use.

CLASSICAL STUDIES.

By W. H. D. Rouse, M.A., formerly Fellow of Christ’s College in Cambridge, and a Master at Rugby School.

Aim of a girl’s education.It were idle to expect that classics can be studied with the same thoroughness in girls’ schools as in boys’. Girls’ schools have grown up with other traditions; music and drawing and modern languages have so long been the staple of a girl’s education, that it is perhaps too late now to make any radical change. Nor is it clear that even if possible, it would be well to substitute classics for these subjects. If the object of girls’ education be, as many think, not so much to turn out finished scholars as to give an intelligent and sympathetic interest in life, this can be better achieved by grafting classics upon the existing curriculum, than by ousting other studies for the sake of these. Nevertheless, there will be many whose aim it is to give themselves to teaching as a profession, and some who are scholars born, and willing to spend their life in research and study. A good school must provide for these; and we have to consider how to combine the interests of both classes. The result will naturally be a compromise: the average pupil getting less than the average boy gets, while the few specialists will need to make up for lost time, and to compress their work into a shorter period than is usually given to it. The object of teaching will be the same in any case: a mastery of the matter perfect as far as it goes; and at the outset, the methods will be much the same.

Importance of Latin in all schemes of higher education.It is scarcely necessary to insist on the value of Latin for every educated man or woman. It is not only valuable as a thorough training of the mind, in close reasoning and unremitting attention; nor only as opening to the student a literature of great interest: it is actually useful in a practical way. It is the key to all the Romance languages; Latin once mastered, French and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are brought within easy reach. Almost all that has then to be learnt is the grammar of these languages; for the body of the words is already familiar. Certainly much study and practice will be needed before these languages can be spoken; but is it nothing to be able to read? Men who are preparing for the Civil Service in India learn Sanskrit; not because the Government is interested in the training of their minds, but because this is the key to the spoken dialects of India. As this dead language is practically useful in learning Hindi or Bengali, so Latin is practically useful in learning Italian or French. Then again, the grammatical drill is much more rigid and effective in teaching Latin than in teaching French, Italian, or even German. The relation of action to object, the subordination of thought to thought, the dependence of an oblique statement, all become clear to the mind in English or French when they have been made clear to the eye by Latin. Nor must we forget that without Latin no one can really understand English, especially the English of such writers as Milton and Bacon. And besides these advantages, Latin has a direct use in several professions, which are now or may yet be open to women: in medicine, in the law, in letters; and even in business a knowledge of it, as already pointed out, will enable any one to become fit for foreign correspondence with far less difficulty than otherwise.

We will assume, then, that Latin will be begun even in girls’ schools early enough (say at thirteen or fourteen) to get through the grammar, without undue pressure, by the time the specialist will wish to begin Greek. There may be at that time a certain amount of work yet to get through which a boy of the same age would have done; but this will have to be done more quickly, that is all. It must not be slurred or neglected, certainly; but the student will probably find that the work progresses at a rather quicker rate than might be expected, because the mind is already better trained and stored than is usual at that stage of the study.

The right method of teaching a language.The right method of teaching a language may be put in a nutshell: grammar, reading, writing and conversation should go side by side. For convenience, and because of the importance of the subjects, grammar and exercises in composition will naturally have special times assigned to them; but they should never be left out of sight. No construing lesson ought to be done without some grammatical drill, or without a few sentences of conversation, which is in fact composition in brief. (1) Grammar.The importance of grammar can hardly be overestimated; and the first thing the learner must understand is that the skeleton of the language, the inflections, have to be known by heart. A knowledge of cognate languages may help, and comparative tables of forms may help both intelligence and memory, but in the end it all comes to the same thing: however the pupil may have learnt them, he must be prepared to say off his declensions and conjugations from memory in the usual tabular form. There are, in this slipshod age, those who affect to despise precise knowledge, such as geographical names and facts, historical dates, and the paradigms of a grammar. To “learn by reading” not sufficient.“Learn by reading” is their motto in language; a most false and pernicious principle, as I can testify from sad experience. It has been my lot to learn one or two languages sufficiently well to enable me to read in them, and I grieve to relate that in these I shirked the drudgery of the grammar. The result is that although a certain amount of grammar has soaked in, I cannot yet read without a manual by my side. The most such a method can do is to give the general sense of a sentence; but it often fails to do even that, inasmuch as the general sense of a sentence is made up of the precise sense of its parts. Exactness in understanding is not to be had without paying the price, and the price is an exact knowledge of grammar. The rottenness of this system is shown when it comes to writing; and the productions of these empirics might well make Quintilian stare and gasp. Thus, however the grammar may be taught to begin with, the class should always have handy some book containing just the facts of the language, arranged in the usual fashion, and not encumbered with exercises. They will need this in the end, and they may as well have it at the beginning. The most useful books of the kind are Kennedy’s Revised Latin Primer (or Postgate’s New Latin Primer, which is in some respects better, notably in the marking of quantities) and Abbott and Mansfield’s Greek Grammar. If no book of exercises is used, it is hardly necessary to say that these books cannot be learnt straight through from cover to cover. Indeed, the very first pages of both are unintelligible to beginners. In that case the teacher must himself select what is to be learnt; and the tables which follow ([pp. 87-8]) are meant to assist in this.

(2) Reading to be begun as soon as possible.As soon as the pupil is able to understand a simple sentence, he should begin to use some reading book. One of the most satisfactory Latin readers I have had to do with is Abbott’s Dux Latinus; some of the books err in not being simple enough in the structure of the sentences. Equally good and more easy to work with are the cheap Single Term Readers of Messrs. Rivington. The sooner the pupil can be put on to a genuine classical author, the better. Eutropius, Nepos or Phædrus is better suited for beginners than Cæsar; Cæsar will come next. Stories from Ovid may follow, and some of Cicero’s lucid and interesting narrative; the best selection is that of Walford (Clarendon Press). Virgil may be well begun in Allcroft’s Story of Æneas (Blackie). Once the pupil has attained this stage, further selection should be easy; only, be it said, too many notes spoil the scholar.

The student will be able sooner to tackle an author in Greek than in Latin, because of the greater simplicity of the language. In a very short time he ought to pass on to the excellent Clarendon Press Easy Selections from Xenophon, or some adaptation of stories from Herodotus, or parts of Lucian. He may then take one of the Rugby Scenes from Greek Plays (Rivingtons), and the easier parts of Thucydides, as edited in Rivington’s Middle Form Greek Readers.

Construing.In the construing lesson, the teacher will of course try to give each pupil a small portion to translate; and with a class of twenty-five this can easily be done in three quarters of an hour, leaving time for questions. He will then go through the passage himself, asking a question or two now and then to rivet their attention; and then one and another should be called upon to decline or conjugate as many of the words (regular as well as irregular) as can be got into the time. It is needless to insist that constant practice is necessary in grammar and parsing. In this manner the accidence will be kept fresh in the mind, and at last (it is to be hoped) firmly impressed upon it. But one most important aid to learning is so often neglected, that it will be necessary to speak about it rather fully. (3) Conversation.This is conversation. First let me say that nothing is meant resembling the method of Gouin. What may be the merits of that method in the case of French or German, it is needless to ask here; but I am confident that a syntax and accidence so elaborate as those of Greek could not possibly be taught by that method in any reasonable time, and I do not believe they could be so taught at all. Simple conversation can be begun as soon as the pupil begins to read. We will suppose the reading book contains the sentence, Post triduum Cæsar equitatum ad Labienum misit. How to be used.The teacher will ask, Quid fecit Cæsar? and the pupil must be made to answer, at first by prompting if necessary, Misit equitatum Cæsar. The next question may be, Ad quem misit equitatum? the reply, Ad Labienum misit equitatum Cæsar. Other questions may be got out of this short sentence; such as Quis misit? quid? quando? The class should be made to give always a complete sentence in reply. At first they may have the book open before them; but so soon as they are used to the sound of the words, they should be made to shut the book and answer from memory. Five minutes at the end of a lesson is not much to give, and it is surprising how this kind of thing quickens interest and memory. Its great advantages.The pupils find the advantage when they sit down to write their exercises, for now the words and constructions come quickly into the mind. Moreover, they will find that they have learnt unconsciously the difference in emphasis which position makes; for it will be observed that in the simple answers given above, the words which answer the question, and are therefore the most important, come first in the answer. The teacher should ring the changes on his reading exercise in this way, until after a term or two he will be able to begin talking to them on other subjects: such as the weather, the pictures on the walls, the pupils’ dress, their inky fingers, anything that occurs to him. He must take every opportunity of dropping in the accusative and infinitive, a phrase of purpose or consequence, or the like; and thus, without much trouble, these bugbears will be got rid of. If a pupil can answer no more than Nescio quid dicas, it is something that he uses the subjunctive in a dependent question.

But it will be asked, where are the teachers to be found who can do this? A difficulty met.The answer is, that it is perfectly easy to learn, and only needs practice. The teacher will have his own book open before him, and need not go beyond its words till he has gained confidence; then by degrees he will do it more and more easily, and in a while talking will come quite naturally to him. In more discursive conversations, it is true, some preparation will be necessary, but it is quite worth the while. There are one or two little books that teachers will find useful,[8] but they will best make their own collections. A few hours’ reading will give an ample store of colloquialisms from Plato, Aristophanes and Lucian, from Plautus, Terence, and Cicero’s letters. It is not a bad plan to compile lists of colloquial sentences, say a hundred, and make every pupil learn them by heart.

[8] Sprechen Sie Attisch? Ioannides: Koch, Leipzig, 1889. Sprechen Sie Lateinisch? Id. Sargent, Greek Prose Composition. Blackie, Gr. Conversation.

A practical test.It may be worth while saying that the writer has tested this method, and found it practicable with young and old. Moreover it has been applied, within his knowledge, to the teaching of Russian, a language hardly less difficult than Greek; and it is found possible, by combining conversation, reading, writing and learning by heart, to teach even obtuse persons how to read an ordinary novel or newspaper, to write a social or official letter, and to converse on ordinary topics, in three months, although before they began this course they knew not even the Russian alphabet.

(4) Composition.For Latin composition the teacher can hardly do better than begin with Abbott’s Via Latina; for Greek, Ritchie’s Practical Greek Method is to be recommended, though not so unreservedly. What books are best to follow up with may be seen from the lists given below. But after all, it is not books that teach, so much as the teacher; and he had better fix on the subjects that are to be taught at each stage, and select or make the exercises necessary to teach them.

Every exercise will of course be corrected, and the pupil should never pass on without having written out a correct translation of the exercise himself. Practical hints for teaching it.If it is practicable, the best thing is for him to be told his mistakes, and then to rewrite the exercise, doing it again and again until it is right. But if time permits not this, the teacher may do a good deal to encourage self-help by going round the class whilst they are writing, and underlining all mistakes, which the pupils are then to correct, if they can. As soon as possible, pieces of continuous prose should be done as well as sentences; and this can be begun quite early, in fact after a couple of terms’ work. The same plan of underlining mistakes may be followed with these; but it will be found advantageous, as the work increases in difficulty, to give more and more often fair copies of the teacher’s, or by some other competent person. In all composition it is useful to dictate the fair copy, and then to give a few minutes for the class to learn it. The class should then be called up, the copy taken away, and the English should be translated viva voce. Of course any reasonable translation will be accepted; it is not meant that only the very words of the copy given will do. Let the old pieces be done over now and again at sight; and the results cannot fail to be good.

Type-sentences to be learnt by heart.Most of the exercise books have explanations prefixed to each exercise, with examples. All such examples, or at least one of each construction, should be learnt by heart. The same should be done with the syntax rules of any grammar which may be in use. These should all be so well drilled into the pupils, that when a rule is given, or a heading, or (for beginners) the English meaning, the pupils should be able to reel off the example without hesitation. A certain portion of syntax, or of the exercise book, or both, should be set for each stage; and the classes which are studying that part of the subject must learn these, and keep up the old work. The reading book will give plenty of opportunity to ask for these quotations, and it should constantly be done. The oftener the pupil repeats his example of the instrumental ablative, or whatever it may be, the better he will know it; and he cannot know it too well. The pupil should be tested and kept up to the mark by regular grammar papers, at least twice a term.

Unseen translation.Unseen translation should be commenced as early as possible, and form part of the regular work. Beginners can try some unprepared piece out of their reading book, which they must do on paper, and without help, except that they will use the vocabulary. As soon as the pupils are far enough on to use a dictionary, some special book of unseens should be taken, such as Jerram’s Anglice Reddenda. The use of helps can be gradually discontinued, until the pupil is weaned from them altogether. This can be done by forbidding dictionaries, and giving the meanings of the more unfamiliar words, fewer and fewer by degrees.

Repetition.As soon as the pupil has begun to read a verse author, repetition should be begun, and never afterwards discontinued. Verse is easier to learn, so with verse we begin; but pieces of prose for learning should be set later. It is useful to make the repetition a part of the terminal examination, and to have every word of it written out. A Greek play and a book of Virgil should be chosen (say the Medea, or the Œdipus Tyrannus, and the IVth or VIth Æneid), together with the Heroides of Ovid, and if time allows, one of the speeches against Catiline and a Philippic of Demosthenes. These can be divided into portions, a portion for each form or class, and it should be understood that this has to be learnt during the term and kept up afterwards. The examination will simply consist in writing out all the portion learnt during the term, and all the old work, if any. As the work will always be the same, the older pupils will soon get to know it perfectly. The system here recommended has been used in one great school for perhaps a quarter of a century, and the results have been excellent.

Methods of work more advanced.We will now suppose that the accidence and syntax are fairly well known, and that the pupil is ready to read a book of Virgil or a speech of Cicero, Euripides or Demosthenes, without serious difficulty. The methods followed will not change; they will merely be applied more widely. The grammar will need to be kept fresh by the same means as before, and the study will be made more intelligent by use of the comparative and historical methods;[9] construing will be done in the same order, but some style will be expected; composition will be worked by means of correction and fair copies, but the pieces chosen will be harder, and here, too, style will be more attended to; conversation will by this time have become easy and interesting, and will cover a wider range of ideas. What is to be aimed at.The aims of the teacher at this stage must be to teach self-reliance, and to direct the student more and more to illustrative reading. It is advisable at this stage to do part of the work without the aid of notes. The class is reading, we will suppose, a book of Horace’s Odes, and one of Cicero’s speeches. He should have a complete text of Horace, and the proper volume of Cicero’s works (or the whole), with no notes at all; from this he should prepare the work for the first time of doing. Difficulties he must make out as best he can, with the aid of grammar and dictionary, some dictionary of antiquities (Rich for beginners, Smith’s large one for older students), Gow’s Companion and the pictorial Atlas of Antiquities. What is to be aimed at.For revision, he should be given notes dictated by the teacher, or some edition with printed notes in it. The class work should be done with the utmost care and exactness, and parts of the author committed to memory: side by side with this should go more discursive reading, especially for the older students. They should be encouraged (and at last expected) to read more of the author by themselves, and to bring difficulties to the teacher, who ought now and again to test their progress. Thus the curriculum of the latter part of the school work will consist of a portion of all the chief authors to be read in school, and as much more as possible of the same authors read out of school.

[9] Lindsay’s Short Historical Latin Grammar. For Greek there is none such as yet, but notes may be given from Giles’ Manual, or King and Cookson (see [lists] below).

Illustrative works.The pupil should also be directed to illustrative works which will serve to quicken his interest in any author. The excellent series of Ancient Classics for English Readers contains an account of each author, with extracts translated; and well do I remember my interest in the Xenophon of this series, when quite a boy. Passages might be read to the class from some book of travels; On the Track of the Ten Thousand, if Xenophon be the author; Travels or Explorations in Egypt, if Herodotus; and so forth. The reader of Cicero could not fail to be interested in Boissier’s Cicero and his Friends; the Latin poets are well illustrated by Sellar’s Roman Poets of the Republic and of the Augustan Age. Symonds’ Greek Poets, Mahaffy’s literary and historical books, Champagny’s Les Césars, Girard’s Education Athénienne are only a few out of many books which make the old days live again, and add to the literary appreciation of a learner.

Translations.The elder pupils in their private reading must be taught the proper use of translations. It is not to be expected that they will do without them entirely; but they should have access to the best, in a school library or elsewhere, under some direction at first and afterwards at discretion. If they are clearly shown that it is their interest to use them only where their own honest efforts have failed, or as models in the case of books they have already done, most of them will be sensible enough not to abuse their liberty. The pupil will gain much, too, by reading some of the old translations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From North’s Plutarch, Hobbes’ Thucydides, Holland’s Livy, and other such, the learner will gain a new idea of what the English language can do, much to the advantage of his style. Nor is there the same danger in giving pupils these books as in allowing them the free use of modern translations. They reproduce the spirit rather than the letter, and are of little use as “cribs”.

Style.When the pupil has learnt how to write correct Latin or Greek, it will be time to pay some attention to style. The pieces chosen should at first be definitely historical, oratorical, philosophical, or dialogue, according to the author being at the time studied; in the last stage, these should be given one after the other, unless any weak point needs strengthening. Lectures and demonstrations.It is useful now and again to give lectures and demonstrations in composition to a class. Each will be provided with a copy of the English, and the teacher then will get to the heart of it, state its thoughts in the sequence and subordination as simply as possible, and finally translate it bit by bit, using the blackboard to record each step. Questions may be asked or anticipated, and the various renderings suggested should be weighed and discussed. In this manner the beginner sees how a trained mind works, and is helped to guide his own. Good examples of the method may be seen in Sidgwick’s Lectures on Greek Prose Composition, Postgate’s Sermo Latinus, and Sargent’s Primers.

Verse-writing.So far nothing has been said of verse composition. Much obloquy has been poured on this of late years; and it may be admitted that formerly too much time was given to it. But in spite of all that objectors can say, there is no manner of doubt that verse-writing is a practice of very great value. No one really pretends that it can make poets (the common sneer); all that is claimed for it is, that it is valuable as a mental gymnastic and in training the literary sense. Prose-writing can teach the power of words, but only verse their subtler associations; prose teaches the effect of position upon emphasis, but verse makes clear that there is such a thing as literary form. Most people never realise the rhythm of a piece of prose; its more striking faults may offend or its merits unconsciously please, but why these please or offend it would be beyond their power to say. Its value.But the dullest boy or girl who has learnt how to piece together an elegiac couplet, understands that this particular kind of composition is regulated by definite bounds, and cast in a form, the variations of which are limited. His ear becomes attuned more or less to rhythm, and this first step may be used to lead him on to the comprehension of literary form in other kinds. I do not say that he will never learn the lesson without writing verses, but that this is the easiest way to teach it; and I would apply the same principle to English or any other language. Some incidental advantages follow at the same time; not the least that the pupil understands the metre of the poets he reads. He will not learn this equally well by scanning. To have full effect the act of scanning must be unconscious; that is, the reader must take in words, meaning and rhythm at the same time without effort. So far as my experience goes, those who have not learnt how to write verses never read poetry in this way, but the scanning (if done) is done by a conscious effort, which draws off the mind from the poetry. Let the class, then, as soon as they begin to read a verse author, do a term’s work or two on elementary exercises in metre (I will not say verse-writing) from Penrose’s Latin Elegiac Verse Composition. The time will not be wasted, as has been shown, even if no more is done. Those who wish to go further in Latin verse cannot do without a skilled teacher, for no books exist which can help him much. Demonstrations on the blackboard can teach a great deal at this stage; but nothing can be done by the pupil without learning a great deal of Latin verse by heart. Greek verse is easier to compose than Latin, and may be begun quite late. Nearly all the elementary books on Greek verse are useless without a teacher, and need constant supervision and help; perhaps I may be pardoned for mentioning a little book called Damon, since this is the only one wherein the learner is led on by steps graduated close one after the other. Pupils may go straight from this book to the rendering of pieces of English verse, but both Sidgwick’s and Sargent’s books on Greek verse will always be found useful.

Pronunciation of Latin and Greek.It is necessary now to say something about the pronunciation of Latin and Greek. The reformed pronunciation is strongly to be recommended. This is simply set forth in a pamphlet published by the Cambridge University Press,[10] and for Latin is practically that given in the first pages of the Latin Primer. The sole advantage of pronouncing Latin and Greek words as if they were English, is that the learner need learn nothing new. But this is far outweighed by the disadvantages; and after all, the pupil has begun to learn French or German, and so is not struck dumb at being called upon to pronounce i as ee. The main disadvantages are these: (1) Confusion of s, c, and t, as Ceres with Seres, cedit with sedit; (2) Confusion of quantity, mensīs (abl. pl.) with mensĭs (gen. sing.), mālum (“evil”) with mălum (“apple”); (3) Difficulty of pronunciation in many words, especially in Greek, as παύω when the first syllable is made to rhyme with law; (4) Loss of much beauty in the sound of the languages.

[10] The Reformed Pronunciation of Greek and Latin: Arnold and Conway. 1895. IS.

The accent in Greek.In one point, however, I differ from the authors of this pamphlet—that is, on the question of Greek accentuation. It is generally agreed that the Greek accents must be learnt, and rightly so, for many interesting linguistic points turn on them; but it is also the invariable practice not to try to pronounce them. To be taught as far as practicable.But there is really no reason why most of them should not be pronounced. The Greek accent, as is well known, was a musical intonation; the acute[11] denoting a rise in the tone, the circumflex a rise followed by a fall, i.e., a kind of drawl. The circumflex can always be pronounced with ease; so can the acute, when final; so can the great majority of internal accents. It is just as easy to say ἐλΕΙποντο as ἐλειΠΟΝτο. The only cases of real difficulty are words like φέρηται, άνθρωπος, where a long vowel follows an accented syllable. These might be waived for beginners, but these are few compared to the rest; and even to pronounce the accent and quantity in these is not very difficult, especially with the reformed pronunciation. This plan has been tried, and found to work fairly, with young boys from twelve to sixteen.

[11] The grave on finals, when written for acute, is practically the same.

Value of old English translations.There is a means by which the classical teacher may be greatly helped, and that is if the general course of studies in the school be so arranged, that good English translations of the classics form a fair proportion of the English authors read. Many of these translations are themselves English classics, such as Chapman’s and Pope’s Homer, North’s Plutarch, Dryden’s Virgil and Juvenal. Others there are in plenty, no less excellent than these, if less known—Phaer’s Virgil, Holland’s versions of Livy, Suetonius, Plutarch’s Morals, and many other works; Hobbes’ Thucydides, Barnard’s Terence, Echard’s Plautus—indeed there is hardly a classical author of repute who did not find a worthy translator in the Elizabethan age. A few of these are accessible in cheap reprints,[12] and if there were a demand for any of them a reprint would appear at once. By reading these the children will become familiar with the subject-matter of classical authors before they have to translate them; and they will also have made acquaintance with some fine works of literature, many of which (such as North) are interesting from association with Shakspere. When Roman or Greek history comes in the regular historical cycle, some of these books might well be read along with them.

[12] Messrs. Dent & Co., in the Temple Classics, have brought out Chapman, and intend to include North and others.

Models and illustrations.The last thing to be mentioned is the use of models and illustrations. There is almost no limit to the number of such things that can be had; the real limit is the depth of the teacher’s purse. But the schools ought to provide these things for use; it is too much to expect that teachers should spend their sparings and savings in educational plant. Any money spent in this way is amply repaid by the interest added to the work. Classical teachers ought to have at their disposal lantern slides illustrating classical life and history, wall pictures and maps, photographs and models. Slides may be hired from the Hellenic Society, or bought through the Teachers’ Guild;[13] for wall pictures there are two excellent series, those of Cybulski and Launitz. Of photographs there are thousands. The wise teacher will travel and collect them; but for those who will not, one or two addresses of photographers are given below,[14] with the names of some useful works. The pictures can be kept in the school library, and hung up for the term when they will be useful. For the photographs, frames with movable backs are most to be recommended, as the pictures can then be changed at will. The teacher should talk about them, and question his class, and (as already suggested) they may form a topic of Latin or Greek conversation. It is astonishing how much children will learn from these things. In addition, it is highly desirable that each pupil should have his pictorial atlases as he has an atlas of geography.

[13] There is a large collection in the Guild Museum, Gower Street, London. Here also models may be seen.

[14] See [p. 93].

Recapitulation.The writer has now pointed out what, in his opinion, is the place which Latin and Greek should take in a girl’s education, and the methods best calculated to teach them. If in these there is not much that is new, they are at all events such as experience has proved to be sound. One or two points may be indicated which are apt to be weak in girl students, and must therefore be specially guarded against. Weak points to be strengthened.They are apt to be shaky in grammar, and they seem to have less mental self-reliance than boys. As regards those who learn late, they must go over the same ground; for no teacher and no book, no not if angels wrote it, can point out a royal road to learning. These late-learners bring to the task a mind already more or less trained, and so they will get on faster; but let them beware of trying to get on too fast. They must make up their minds that grammar has to be learnt, and work at it with a will. If they have already done half of the drudgery by learning Latin, as here recommended, their task will be not easy indeed, but not beyond their powers; and even if both Latin and Greek are begun late, they need not even then despair. I have known several, both men and women, who have begun late and ended with success, even with distinction; although it must be admitted that these were persons of exceptional powers. But it is of the utmost importance that the most capable teachers should have charge of the late-learners. The greater the difficulty, the greater need for a teacher who has his subjects at the ends of his fingers, who can see a short-cut, and is able to judge how much of the preliminary work can safely be shortened, or even omitted for the time. When skill in the teacher meets with will in the taught, between them they may remove mountains.

SUGGESTED SCHEME OF WORK IN SIX PARTS.

LATIN.

GREEK.

BOOKS.[15]

[15] V is added to those which have vocabularies; K means key.

The writer wishes it to be understood that this is not an exhaustive list. These books he has either tested by use, or has good grounds in the experience of others for the judgment given of them; but there are many others of the same kind, and there is often little to choose between them. The publishers whose books are given below are: Camb. Univ. Press, Clarendon Press, Blackie, Dent, Grevel, Isbister, Longmans, Macmillan, Murray, Rivingtons, Seeley, Trübner.

LATIN: GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.

Public School Lat. Primer (or Postgate’s New Lat. Primer, in some respects a more useful book) should be kept at hand, if only for reference and revision. Abbott, Via Latina (v), 3/6; excellent. Morris, Elementa Latina, with Tripertita as an exercise book, followed by Mansfield’s Lat. Exercise Book; a good series for very beginners, but the exercises need supplementing. Allen, Rudimenta Latina (v) 2/6; belongs to a complete series, the other books being an Elementary Latin Grammar, 2/6, a First (v), 2/6, and a Second Latin Exercise Book (v), 3/6. The last named is an excellent book for teachers, who may learn much from it, but I have found it dull and difficult for the learner. Ritchie, First Steps in Lat. (v), 1/6; also one of a series, with Ex. in Lat. Prose Comp. (v), 2/6, and Easy Continuous Lat. Prose, 2/6,[16] Latin Clause Construction, 1/6, a First Lat. Verse Book (v), 2/-, and a Reader Fabulæ Faciles (v), 2/6, with Imitative Lat. Ex. (v), 1/6, based upon it. These are good books, and I prefer them to Allen’s after using both series: the explanations are clearer, and there are more sentences. Macmillan’s Latin Course (v), two parts, 3/6 and 4/6; good. It has an advantage in the large number of exercises. England, Exx. in Latin, Syntax and Idiom (v k), 2/6; a companion to Roby’s School Latin Grammar. Rooper and Herring, Primary Lat. Exx. (v), 3/6; specially adapted to the Revised Lat. Primer. North and Hillard, Lat. Prose Comp. (v), for the middle forms, 3/6; carefully arranged and progressive from phrases and sentences to continuous prose. Champneys and Randall, Easy English Pieces for Translation into Latin Prose, 1st and 2nd series, each 1/6; excellent, and can be used with a sentence book as soon as the elements are mastered. More advanced Grammars: W. M. Lindsay, Short Historical Lat. Gr., 4/6; excellent. This is mainly philological. H. J. Roby, School Lat. Gr., 5/-; good. Not philological.

[16] See below, [Champneys].

For Idiom and Construction in the higher stages:—

Bradley, Arnold’s Lat. Prose Comp. (v), 5/-, and Aids to Writing Latin Prose, 5/-, with full explanations; the former has sentences, the latter continuous prose. Abbott, Lat. Prose through Eng. Idiom, 2/6; is a most useful little book for committing to memory. This should be used with one or two forms or sets in addition to the stock books. Jerram, Latine Reddenda, 1/6; useful collection of miscellaneous sentences. Books of chosen English: Holden, Foliorum Centuriæ, 8/-, for Gr. and Lat. prose; the standard collection. Wilkins’ Manual of Lat. Prose Comp., 4/6. Sargent and Dallin, Materials and Models for Lat. Pr. Comp. (k), 6/6; with references for each piece to portions of Latin authors on similar subjects; a useful book. Potts, Passages for Transl. into Lat. Prose (k), 2/6. Nettleship, Passages for Transl. into Lat. Prose, with a valuable introduction. Postgate: see [below].

Most useful for teachers, advanced students, or private students:—

J. Y. Sargent, Lat. Prose Primer (v), 2/6; most of the pieces are carefully analysed, and the steps by which the sense is mastered and then translated are shown in detail. It is a companion to Sargent’s Easy Passages for Transl. into Lat. (k), 2/6. Potts, Hints towards Lat. Pr., 3/-; perhaps the most useful of all manuals on Latin prose style. Postgate, Sermo Latinus (k), 2/6; interesting and instructive. Ramsay, Lat. Pr. Versions, with the English, 5/-; excellent models. Meissner’s Lat. Phrase Book, 3/6; phrases and quotations classified and indexed; a most useful book. Roby’s Lat. Gr., two vols., 9/- and 10/6; indispensable. W. M. Lindsay, Lat. Language, 21/-; indispensable to those who study Latin from the comparative standpoint. His Short Historical Lat. Gr. will, however, be sufficient for less advanced students.

VERSE.

Manuals by Penrose (elegiacs); Morice (same, more advanced), and Lupton (lyrics): Holden, Foliorum Silvula (the best anthology).

READERS.

There are numbers of elementary readers, and there is really little to choose between them. The most useful set seems to the writer to be Rivington’s Single Term Latin Readers, 8d. to 1/4 each. With notes, exercises and vocabularies. These are sets of three books for each of six terms, each book containing enough for a term’s work, and each set having the same standard. Others in common use are: Morice, Loculi, 2/-; Abbott, Dux Latinus, 2/-, adapted to Via Latina; Ritchie, Fabulæ Faciles; Bennett’s Easy Lat. Stories, Hardy’s Lat. Reader, etc. Teachers and private students may learn much from Abbott’s Latin Gate.

GREEK: GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.

Abbott and Mansfield, Primer of Gr. Gr., 2/6, or with Syntax, 3/6; is perhaps the most convenient as a collection of facts. A Primer of Gr. Ex., 3/6, has been compiled to go with it. Ritchie’s elementary exercise books can be recommended. Ritchie and Moore, Practical Gr. Method for Beginners (v k), 3/6. Ritchie, First Steps in Gr. (v), 2/-; exercises need to be supplemented. Jackson, First Steps to Greek Prose Comp. (v k), and Second Steps (v k), 1/6 and 3/6; are useful exercise books. Macmillan’s Greek course: Easy Ex. in Gr. Accidence (v), 2/-; Easy Ex. in Gr. Syntax (v), 2/6; Second Gr. Exercise Book (v), 2/6; companions to Rutherford’s Greek Grammar. They are almost exclusively exercises, and very full. Jerram, Graece Reddenda (v), 2/6; a collection of miscellaneous sentences. Sidgwick’s First Gr. Writer (v k), 3/6; easy continuous prose, may be used along with any book of sentences. Following this comes his excellent Gr. Prose Comp. (v k), 5/-, and then the pupil will be able to dispense with crutches. Both have clear and useful introductions. Arnold’s Gr. Pr. Comp. (v k), 3/6, ed. by Abbott, has useful exercises in idiom.

More advanced, and to be used as soon as the accidence is mastered, is Goodwin’s Gr. Gr., 6/-, new ed., excellent; or his School Gr. Gr., 3/6. To the advanced student Goodwin’s Gr. Moods and Tenses, second ed., 14/-, is indispensable. Much may be learnt from the Gr. Gram. of Goodwin, 6/-; Rutherford, 3/6; and Sonnenschein. Collections of chosen English: Holden, Foliorum Centuriæ; Wilkins, Manual of Gr. Prose Comp., 5/-; Sargent and Dallin, Materials and Models for Gr. Prose Comp. How to tackle a piece of English, see Sidgwick’s Lectures on Gr. Prose Comp., and Lectures on the Teaching of Composition, 4/6. Sargent’s Gr. Prose Primer (v k), 3/6, is stimulating.